


A Year Every Minute Shorts

by askull4everyoccasion



Series: A Year Every Minute [2]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-22
Updated: 2016-10-19
Packaged: 2018-08-16 15:08:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 20
Words: 29,995
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8106961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/askull4everyoccasion/pseuds/askull4everyoccasion
Summary: These are small collections of events that happen within the AYEM universe. Most of them happen within chapter two, where Gaster and the boys are still living peacefully together in the Underground.





	1. Gaster Finds A Microwave

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gaster finds a microwave and brings it back to the boys. He inevitably blows it up.

“BOYS!” Gaster yelled as he threw open the door to their home. Sans and Papyrus turned and looked at him, knowing that if he entered like that it would undoubtedly be about him finding something cool from the dump. Sure enough the doctor walked inside and set down an old microwave on the table in front of the couch Sans and Papyrus were sitting on.

 

“... what is it?” Sans asked, a brow raised.

 

“A microwave! This is the second one I've found. The other one is still in pieces in my other lab, but since we have this one too we can mess around with it! I've already fixed it up.” He said, lifting the appliance again and carrying it into their meager, messy kitchen.

 

“WHAT'S IT DO?” Papyrus asked, sitting up and peering over the back of the couch as he watched his father plug it in.

 

“Well humans mostly use it to cook their food, but the possibilities are much more grand than that.” Gaster explained, pressing a few of the buttons to make sure it was still working. “I brought this one home to show you some of the cool things it can do!”

 

“COOL!” Papyrus grinned, scrambling off the couch to stand beside his father. Sans followed, albeit much slower.

 

“Okay, so... what should I put in first?” The doctor stood and looked around. He didn't have to wait long, his youngest son shooting off and coming back a second later holding a bar of soap.

 

“Soap? Okay.” Gaster chuckled and took it before throwing it into the microwave and turning it on.

 

It bubbled and started to foam, growing like a tumor as more time passed.

 

“COOOOL!” Papyrus grinned, his face nearly pressed against the little window looking inside.

 

“neat.” Sans smiled.

 

Once it was finished they took it out, Gaster poking it to make sure it wasn't too hot before holding it down to Papyrus. The little skeleton took it and began to mold it around in his hands.

 

“IT'S LIKE PLAYDOUGH!” He passed it to Sans, who did the same.

 

“What else do you wanna put in it?” The scientist grinned, looking down at his sons. Papyrus was the one most excited, looking around for a moment before running and getting some marshmallows. He handed them over to Gaster.

 

“hey, how come you get _my_ snacks?” Sans asked with a huff.

 

“YOUR SNACKS ARE GROSS.” Papyrus argued as their father took a few and tossed them into the microwave.

 

“I'll buy you more, Sans.” He swung the door closed and punched in a random time. They watched as the marshmallows began to inflate, growing larger and larger.

 

“woah. bigger 'mallows. nice. maybe i should do this from now on with all of them.” Sans grinned, Papyrus turning back to look at him.

 

“THAT'S GROSS, SANS.”

 

Eventually the mass of sugar began to deflate, Gaster reaching in to pull it out. “OW. Damn that's hot. Hold on.” He shook his hand and looked around before getting a few plates and scooping it up haphazardly. The boys stared at it before poking it with a pencil, swirling the melted goop around.

 

“EWWW!” Papyrus giggled.

 

“Okay, now it's my turn.” Gaster grinned and unplugged the microwave. “Sans, grab those leftover wrappers, the tinfoil ones.”

 

“here we go.” Sans rolled his eyes but did what his father asked.

 

“C'mon Pap, I'm gonna show you something even cooler.” A wicked grin spread across his face as he took his son's hand in his and lead him outside.

 

“YAY!”

 

Once they were outside Gaster set the microwave down and hooked it up to an extension chord. Soon after Sans came out with the tinfoil, which he took and shoved inside.

 

“Firstly, check this out.” He said, turning it on for a moment just long enough to let his boys watch the foil spark and flicker.

 

“cool.”

 

“THAT'S PRETTY.”

 

“BUT!” The scientist held up a finger and pulled out a container in his pocket, undoing the lid before setting it inside the microwave. “If you add something like gasoline.”

 

“oh no.” Sans grabbed Papyrus' hand and quickly lead him further and further back.

 

“Oh yes!” Gaster slammed the door shut and quickly set the time before running like a madman to where his sons stood. Not a few moments later there was an explosion, the entire microwave bursting into flames and spitting fire everywhere.

 

Papyrus screamed and flinched behind his brother, who twitched and held him tightly. The father, meanwhile, was grinning like an idiot.

 

“WHOO!” He shouted, fists in the air. His white gaze looked down to Sans and Papyrus. “Wasn't that cool!?”

 

“I LIKED THE MARSHMALLOWS BETTER.” Papyrus pouted.

 

“Aw, you're no fun.” Gaster pouted, but it didn't last long as the fire alarm started to blare.

 

“Oh. Oops.” He mumbled, scrambling for the nearest fire extinguisher. Sans and Papyrus watched as the doctor sprayed at the bits of flame all over the yard and what remained of the microwave.

 

“WHY DOES DAD ALWAYS BLOW EVERYTHING UP?”

 

“i dunno, pap. he's just weird.”

 


	2. Prank Wars

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A small glimpse into one of the many “prank wars” Gaster and the boys got into during their early life together.

The day was like any other in the skeleton household. Gaster had finally managed to fall asleep at his desk, which could only mean one thing.

 

It was time to stack things on dad.

 

Sans and Papyrus tried hard to suppress their giggles as they stood behind him, the older of the two using his powers to slowly stack books, cups, and pencils on top of him. It was becoming quite the tower. At least until Papyrus decided to shove a fry into his nasal cavity.

 

The doctor's eyes flew open, flashing purple as he sat up. Everything came crashing down around him, both of his boys barely able to contain their laughter.

 

“aw man, you woke him up pap.” Sans said through chuckles. Papyrus couldn't respond, his hands over his mouth as he watched his annoyed father pull a pencil out of his eye socket.

 

“Hah-hah. You know what this means?”

 

The boys looked at each other, then at Gaster. His pupils vanished and a wicked grin spread across his mouth.

 

“ **Prank war.** ”

 

Sans and Papyrus stopped laughing just as the doctor began, sounding like a maniac.

 

_Uh-oh._

 

–

 

The first few days were uneventful, Gaster intentionally doing nothing just to make his boys more and more anxious as the days flew by. On the third day he made his move.

 

Sans and Papyrus were walking back from school down one of the many dimly lit corridors of the office, just like they usually did. The doctor waited around the corner, having rigged compressed air to his hands with a trigger. As they approached he threw a floppy, goofy looking horse mask over his head and waited.

 

As soon as they were within a foot Gaster jumped out, letting out a horrifying screech and blowing the compressed air from his palms into their faces. Papyrus instantly screamed and clutched onto his brother, Sans going stock still and his eye flashing blue and yellow for a second before he realized what was happening.

 

“jeeze, dings...” He sighed, clutching his chest.

 

Gaster stopped blowing the air and started to laugh hysterically through the mask. Papyrus didn't move, still frozen in place with his eye sockets a mile wide.

 

“Pap... Pap it's okay...” Gaster said through laughter as he pulled off the mask. “It's me!”

 

“I... I KNEW THAT!” The skeleton argued, trying to shake away any fear. Sans pushed passed their father and smiled down at Papyrus.

 

“don't worry, we'll get him good tomorrow.”

 

–

 

The following morning as everyone was getting ready to leave, the boys put their plan into motion. Lucky for them last night had been one of the rarer nights where the doctor removed his jacket and shoes to sleep rather than doing so in his clothes at his desk.

 

Perfect.

 

The boys quietly ate their breakfast while Gaster got ready, usually leaving before both of them headed off to school. He pulled on his coat and did what he always did, shoved his hands into his pockets to make sure a few keys and pens were there. After a moment of confusion he pulled out a handful of old fries. The boys giggled from the table.

 

“Fries? Hah-hah, that-” Gaster was cut off as he shoved his foot into his shoe, meeting a huge glob of ketchup. He paused and looked down.

 

“Oh.”

 

Sans and Papyrus both laughed, the older of the two nearly spitting milk out from between his teeth.

 

“Hah-hah, good one.” The doctor shook his head, but was smiling nonetheless as he tossed his dirty sock into the sink and carried his shoes over as well. “Little shits.” He mumbled under his breath, trying not to laugh.

 

–

 

The next day passed without incident, Gaster spending extra time on his next little prank. The following night, however, he finished his plans and set it into motion.

 

In the dead of night while both of his boys were fast asleep, he opened the door and slipped in a tiny remote-controlled helicopter he had ripped apart and recreated for his own means. He closed the door, making sure to lock it before he started it up.

 

It flew into the air, getting as high as possible before he set off an alarm attached to it. It was like an air horn, shrieking loudly and startling both kids awake in an instant. Papyrus screamed, his brother groaning and throwing a pillow over his head.

 

Gaster giggled, blowing the horn again.

 

“DAD!” Papyrus glared at the door, eye sockets watching the little helicopter fly around tooting its obnoxious alarm.

 

“it's a school night, come ooooon...” Sans groaned through his pillow.

 

The doctor could barely contain himself listening, on the other side Papyrus leaping to his feet and jumping into the air to try and catch it. “DAAAAD! STOP!”

 

Eventually Sans pulled the pillow off his head, eye flaring blue as he grabbed the helicopter and tossed it at the door. It clattered and smashed, Gaster quickly stepping inside trying to contain his giggles.

 

“Awww, I spent like an hour on that thing.”

 

“school night.” Sans repeated, grabbing his pillow and yanking it over his head again.

 

–

 

The rest of the week was spent in a truce, the boys not wanting to lose out on another night's sleep just because they wanted to get back at Gaster. However as the weekend rolled around things picked up again, both Papyrus and Sans playing pranks on their father and Gaster always getting them back by either scaring them senseless or messing with them during the night. A few weeks went by with both sides slowly coming down off their little prank war, going back to how they usually were with each other as the novelty wore off.

 

Of course that didn't stop the occasional prank here and there. Sans and Papyrus normally worked together on their pranks towards their father and now was no exception.

 

“DADDY CAN YOU READ THIS FOR ME?” Papyrus asked, holding up a school assignment.

 

“Sure, kiddo.” Gaster said, taking the slip of paper and then reaching into his coat pocket to pull out his glasses. As soon as he held them to his face the hinge fell apart, the frames falling into his lap. Papyrus started to giggle and Sans soon followed suit from the kitchen table.

 

The doctor smiled and sighed, his head leaning back to stare at the ceiling. “God... dammit.” He reached down and picked up his glasses to piece them back together.

 

Later that night things went as usual, Sans sitting and watching TV while Gaster helped Papyrus with his math homework. Usually Papyrus was pretty good with math, but this particular problem seemed to stump him.

 

“No, see... uh...” Gaster tried to explain, a hand waving around in thought. “Hold up 11 fingers.” He paused for a moment, instantly realizing what he had said, but didn't mention it. Instead he looked down at his son.

 

Papyrus looked down at his hands, counting each finger before a sudden look of dread overcame his little face. “DAD... DAD I ONLY HAVE 10.”

 

The doctor's eyes widened. “You what?”

 

“I ONLY HAVE 10 FINGERS!” The skeleton said in panic, holding his hands up for his father to see.

 

“oh jeeze.” Sans commented from the couch through a mouthful of potato chisps.

 

“Oh... OH NO!” Gaster suddenly looked horrified. “I.. I must have messed something up!” He grabbed at the sides of his skull.

 

Papyrus started to panic even more, mouth wobbling and tears gathering in the corners of his eye sockets. That was when Gaster always drew the line, unable to watch his boys ever cry. He laughed it all off and patted Papyrus' shoulder.

 

“Papy, oh no no. It's okay.” He said between laughs. “10 fingers is normal. See?” He held up his own.

 

“O-OH...” Papyrus said, sniffling. He then frowned and smacked his father in the arm. “YOU SCARED ME!”

 

Gaster laughed, flinching at the slap. “Sorry! That's for messing with my glasses earlier.”

 


	3. Sans Meets Another Monsters For The First Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After getting the okay from Gaster to freely roam around for the first time, Sans takes Papyrus out exploring and runs into his first monster.

After Papyrus was made, Sans never wanted him out of his sight. For the first few days, despite being free to wander around the facility, he found himself unwilling and staying with his brother constantly, even if it meant just watching him sleep. Gaster was busy with the reports he would be handing over to the King when he finally took them to see him, so even Sans started to get bored after awhile.

 

His new little brother was sleeping soundly in his lap when Sans finally decided today was the day. Leaving his brother was still out of the question, so instead he grabbed a scarf and wrapped it around Papyrus like a makeshift backpack, carrying the tiny infant over his chest.

 

Sans approached the door, pausing as he heard his creator roll back on his chair.

 

“Finally heading out?” Gaster asked, sounding surprised that he hadn't decided to leave sooner.

 

“uh... yeah, just gonna wander a little.” The skeleton said, although he sounded a little intimidated.

 

“Okay. Be careful.” Gaster said, then paused and raised a brow. “Wait, is that Papyrus on your chest?”

 

“yeah.” Sans smiled and looked down, a hand going on top of his sleeping brother's skull. “i want him to see everything too.”

 

“Oh. Well... alright. Have fun.” Gaster shrugged, a part of him wanting to tell Sans that Papyrus was too young to remember anything he would see, but kept his mouth shut.

 

Sans opened the door and stepped out, for the first time responsible for his brother all on his own. For the first time he could go as far as he wanted without worrying about the repercussions. As the door clicked shut he smiled and started walking, arms hugging gently around his little brother.

 

“we got a whole new world to explore, pap. nothing holding us back now.” The little white dots of his eyes looked down to his still sleeping brother full of hope and wonder. Everything had opened up. Everything was new and exciting; and he finally had family to experience it with.

 

His feet took him the same way it always had, through the corridors of empty and dim hallways. Eventually he reached the limit. It was an invisible line Gaster had set up to stay behind lest anyone ever see him. Now that little line was gone.

 

Sans hovered behind it, suddenly feeling a little anxious. Papyrus made a sound, mumbling and wiggling in his tight little swaddle of fabric. Hearing him caused all anxiety to melt away, Sans looked down at him.

 

“here we go.”

 

He put out his foot, stepping past the invisible line and staring down at the messily tied laces of his sneakers. After a moment of staring at it he smiled even broader and put one foot in front of the other. His walk turned into a brisk jog, which soon turned into a run. It felt so great to not to have to worry about being seen. He felt so free.

 

Papyrus mumbled and frowned, the jostling from Sans running starting to wake him.

 

“oops. sorry pap.” Sans winced, slowing down to a calm walk again.

 

The more he walked the noisier it became, the sounds of machinery and monsters talking growing with each step forward. Eventually he rounded a corner only to nearly walk right into another monster in a lab coat holding a clipboard.

 

“Oh!” She jumped, eyes wide. Under her coat were green scales, her body short and stubby with a draconic-looking face. Sans jumped too, his hands instinctively wrapping around Papyrus to protect him. They stared at each other for a few moments before the assistant smiled.

 

“Are you... the children the doctor told us about?”

 

Sans blinked, “he told you about us?”

 

“We had a meeting the other day where he mentioned that a pair of skeletons would probably show up. He kind of vaguely hinted that you were his boys, but... didn't really say much else other than to be nice to you or, uh...” The dragon trailed off and decided to end her sentence there. Instead she crouched down and smiled.

 

“So what are your names?”

 

“i'm sans. this is papyrus.” He looked down at the tiny skeleton tied to his chest.

 

“Good traditional skeleton names, I like it.” She beamed, “I'm Farfig. Is this your first time in the lab?”

 

Sans nodded and the woman gave them both a warm smile. “Then how about I show you around?”

 

She stood and offered the little skeleton her hand, full of scales and claws. Sans stared at it for a moment before slowly reaching out to take it. Her digits closed around his, feeling warm and soft. He had never really felt anything like it before. It was nice.

 

Farfig turned, leading the two skeletons down the hall. She stopped only to get the attention of one of her coworkers, asking them to take her clipboard and talk to another assistant while she was busy.

 

She lead them down the hall, stopping by some of the more noteworthy rooms. Some were working on different experiments, others perfecting magic or technology, sometimes even merging the two. As they got closer to the core is was noisier and full of steam, the monsters becoming larger and stronger to deal with the constant manual labor it required. The change in sound and atmosphere finally woke little Papyrus, the tiny skeleton opening his eye sockets and beginning to cry.

 

“Oh dear.” The dragon stopped and looked down, Sans hugged his brother tightly.

 

“i think it's too loud down here.” He said, looking up at Farfig.

 

“You're probably right. Are you thirsty? I'll take you to the break room.” She took Sans' hand once more, leading him out of the louder sections of the facility and back into the calm.

 

The break room was quiet, the only sound being the buzz of the refrigerator and lights overhead. Sans climbed up on one of the chairs, petting his brother's head and swaying him gently. Now that things had gotten quieter he had calmed down considerably.

 

“Hm... we don't have much to drink. How about milk?” The dragon asked as she peered into the fridge.

 

“i like milk.” Sans smiled.

 

“Milk it is.”

 

Farfig grabbed a cup from the cupboard and filled it up before handing it over to Sans. She took a seat beside him, watching as he calmed down his brother with one hand while drinking with the other.

 

“You love your brother a lot, don't you?”

 

Sans nodded.

 

“You're very responsible with him. I'm, uh...” She laughed, “Rather surprised you're Dr. Gaster's little boy. You don't seem much like him at all.”

 

“he's weird.”

 

Farfig snorted and began to laugh, covering her mouth to calm herself. “Oh goodness. Don't tell him I laughed at that. Dr. Gaster is a very... eccentric monster, isn't he?”

 

Sans nodded again. After he finished his drink he bounced Papyrus against him, the infant awake and happily mumbling gibberish.

 

“Sans?” The woman eventually asked, suddenly looking a little serious. She folded her scaled hands on the table, claws interlocking with one another. “Is everything okay at home? Is the doctor good to you?”

 

Everyone knew the rumors of Dr. Gaster. He could be very loud, intimidating, and quite heartless in his approach when it came to science. Farfig wasn't about to ask for this poor boy's life story, but she did wonder just how well the insane Dr. Gaster could take care of two little boys. Sans did seem very well-adjusted and nothing like his father, but... that didn't always mean he was being taken care of properly.

 

“he's... not bad.” Sans finally said, his constant smile tugging slightly downward around the edges. “he tries.”

 

The dragon frowned a little and sighed, but soon replaced it with a somewhat forced smile. “Okay. I won't pry. I just want you to know you can always come talk to one of us who work here, alright? I'm sure everyone would be happy to help if you needed it.” She placed a hand on his shoulder.

 

Sans' smile returned. “thanks.”

 

“It's getting rather late. Do you want me to walk you back home?”

 

Sans nodded and climbed off his chair. The woman took his hand again, now not even needing to reach before the little skeleton was already holding it upwards for her to take.

 

They walked down the long corridors until they hit the darker parts of the facility. It wasn't too much of a surprise that they were living inside the core's building, Dr. Gaster never seemed to leave. They stopped just outside the room, Sans reaching up and opening the door.

 

“thanks.” He smiled back at the dragon, who waved goodbye. Not a moment later and the doctor himself was in the doorway, holding it open and peering down at his creations. The white dots of his eyes shot up to Farfig, who tensed up immediately and braced for the worst.

 

“... Thanks for bringing the kids home.” He finally said, the tiniest semblance of a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth before the door closed.

 

Farfig stood in the dark hallway for a moment in silence before she sighed. Maybe the doctor wasn't such a bad father after all.

 


	4. Papyrus' First School Play

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Papyrus has his first school play. Sans tries to keep Gaster from ruining it.

It had been a rather average, uneventful day at school for the two brothers. Like usual Sans passed through the day with relative ease, much to the annoyance of some of his older classmates. Few of them ever really mentioned it to his face however, not after what had happened when another monster had foolishly decided to shove his little brother into a locker. It was pretty unusual for a monster of his age to have such proficiency with magic, but then again with a father like the strange Dr. Gaster that was to be expected, wasn’t it? Who knew what that weirdo had done to make Sans so intimidating.

  
  


The older of the two stood outside the school as he usually did, waiting for his little brother. Some of the nicer monsters in his class would hang out with him and chat for awhile before going on their way, but usually by the time little Papyrus pushed himself through the school doors he was standing alone.

  
  


Today Papyrus shoved open the school doors with much more force than usual, nearly tripping over his own feet as he ran to the edge of the sidewalk where his brother stood. One boney hand clung to the strap of his backpack while the other clutched at a piece of paper, flailing it into the air with a grin plastered across his face.

  
  


“SANS! SANS, GUESS WHAT!” He yelled louder than usual, his brother turning to face him completely unphased by the sheer volume of Papyrus’ voice.

  
  


“what is it, bro?”

  
  


“I GOT A PART IN THE SCHOOL PLAY!” He thrust the slip towards Sans, nearly smacking him in the face with it.

  
  


Sans leaned back a little to avoid the wild gesticulations of his over-enthusiastic brother and took the piece of paper to read it over. It was a story about a chicken who thought the sky was falling, a pretty common children's tale that had to have been read at least once in every monsters life.

  
  


“cool. good for you, pap.” Sans smiled and began walking, handing the piece of paper back to his little brother. “what part are you gonna play?”

  
  


“I GET TO PLAY THE BOY DUCK.”

  
  


“nice. i’m sure ‘dings will…” Sans suddenly trailed off, the corners of his mouth twitching and his pupils faded a little. The sudden realization that their creator would probably mess everything up if he knew about it occurred to him.

  
  


“uh… maybe we shouldn’t tell ‘dings.” He finally said after some thought.

  
  


“WHAT? WHY? I WANT DAD TO KNOW!” Papyrus looked down at the slip of paper in his hands. “HE’D LOVE TO SEE IT!”

  
  


Sans made a sound similar to groaning inside an empty plastic cup. “i’m not gonna make you keep it a secret if you really don’t want to, but just… think about it for a moment. what is ‘dings great at doing?”

  
  


“BLOWING THINGS UP?”

  
  


“aside from that.”

  
  


“HMM…” Papyrus thought aloud, a finger going to his bottom jaw and then tapping along his teeth. “SAYING BAD WORDS?”

  
  


“and?”

  
  


“UHHH…” The little skeleton rolled his eyes a little in thought, as though if he looked back into his skull far enough he would find the answer.

  
  


“i’ll put it another way. what is ‘dings **not** great at doing?”

  
  


Papyrus thought for another moment, but eventually smiled as something came to him. “BEING AROUND OTHER PEOPLE?”

  
  


“bingo.”

  
  


“YAY!” The little skeleton grinned upon getting the correct answer, then abruptly frowned. “OH. RIGHT.”

  
  


The two walked along in silence for a few moments, Papyrus weighing the options of telling his father in his head as opposed to keeping it all a secret. “I STILL THINK I WANT TO TELL HIM.” He eventually smiled, looking up at his brother with hope in his empty little eye sockets. “I’M SURE HE WOULD BE SAD IF I DIDN’T LET HIM COME SEE IT.”

  
  


Sans sighed through his teeth and shrugged. “okay. it’s your play, you get to make the choices.”

  
  


The walk home was as average as their day had been, Papyrus mostly commenting on the play he was going to be a part of. He had never been in a play before but the thought of standing on stage for everyone to see filled him with excitement. Sans could barely keep up with him once they finally reached the long, dim hallway outside of their home. Papyrus shot down the corridor and threw the door open in enthusiasm that he could have only inherited from his father.

  
  


“DAD!” Papyrus yelled, his much slower brother finally catching up and standing behind him.

  
  


Gaster lay underneath some sort of strange motor-looking device, his entire front covered in grease and oil. Upon hearing the first noise outside of his own in hours, he twitched and flung his head upward, the sound of his hollow skull colliding with the metal enough to make both of the boys wince.

  
  


“FUCK.” The doctor yelled, groaning as he pulled himself out from underneath the motor and sitting up. He rubbed his head, smearing more oil and grease over it in the process. “Welcome home…” He grumbled, taking a moment to close his eyes and let the pang in his skull cease.

  
  


“SORRY.” Papyrus frowned and walked over to him, clutching the advertisement for the play against his chest.

  
  


“It’s alright, kiddo. What’s that?” Gaster asked, his one good eye looking at the slip held against his son’s chest through his glasses.

  
  


“OH… WELL…” The little skeleton couldn’t hide his grin as he handed it over, watching as his father wiped the grease from his hands onto his lab coat before taking it. “I’M GOING TO BE IN THE SCHOOL PLAY!”

  
  


After reading over it rather slowly (curse the Latin alphabet), Gaster smiled. “Nice. Good job, Pap. Who do you get to play as?”

  
  


“I GET TO BE THE BOY DUCK.”

  
  


“They didn’t let you get to be the fox?” He raised a brow.

  
  


“I WANTED TO BE THE DUCK.”

  
  


“Oh, fair enough then.” Gaster chuckled and handed the paper back to him before standing up. “So you looking forward to getting eaten at the end?”

  
  


Papyrus’ smile fell instantly. “WHAT?”

  
  


“‘dings!” Sans yelled around a mouthful of chisps, having tossed his things aside and instantly went to the kitchen.

  
  


“That’s the story!” Gaster threw up his arms as he approached the sink and started to wash up. “Don’t get mad at me, the school is the one who thought it was appropriate for kids! Maybe they’ll make the ending nicer, I dunno!”

  
  


“I DON’T WANT TO GET EATEN!” Papyrus clutched at the paper and his brother sighed, walking over to his side.

  
  


“you’re not gonna get eaten, bro. maybe they changed it. maybe it has a nice ending. did they give you the script yet?”

  
  


“NO…”

  
  


“well…” Sans began, trying to think of something to cheer his little brother up. “maybe he takes you all in his den for a party at the end instead.”

  
  


Papyrus smiled a little. “THAT WOULD BE NICE.”

  
  


Sans cast a tiny glare in his creator’s direction, the doctor catching it out of the corner of his eye. He gestured wildly something about ‘not his fault’ and ‘school being a bad idea’, both of which only made his son roll the white dots of his eyes around in their sockets.

  
  


\--

  
  


The following few weeks were filled with practice and preparation. Despite only having a very small line Papyrus felt the need to practice it almost constantly, much to the silent annoyance of both Sans and their father. Even Gaster was much too nice to tell his young son to let up a little, he just didn’t have the heart to tell him.

  
  


Making his costume was rather fun for everyone involved. It might not have been a machine converting geothermal energy into power, but it was still a nice little family project. Sans mostly dealt with the wings and feet, while Gaster spent time making a beak that was unnecessarily complicated, able to open and close with a series of circuits and wires.

  
  


Eventually the big day came, parents of the capitol filing into the little auditorium to watch their tiny monsters have their first shot on the big stage. Sans and Gaster made their way inside, the royal scientist being stopped at least a few times by an excited monster wanting to meet the royal scientist for the first time.

  
  


He didn’t take it very well.

  
  


“Wow! The famous Dr. Gaster! I never thought I’d get the pleasure to see you out and about with the rest of us!” One joked happily.

  
  


The doctor calmly looked up from the program in his hand, head turning abnormally slowly to face the monster addressing them. He said nothing, his face blank and unable to think of anything even remotely decent to say. The words Sans had said to him on their way there played back in his head.

  
  


_ No yelling. Behave and try to be nice. This is for Papyrus. _

  
  


This was going to be hard.

  
  


Sans eventually caught on to his creator’s odd staring and quickly stepped in between them, laughing awkward and grabbing at Gaster’s sleeve. “yeah, funny that. he doesn’t get out much.” He began to drag the doctor to a seat, preferably away from most of the other parents.

  
  


“come on, ‘dings, don’t do anything stupid.” The skeleton mumbled as he found them a spot and sat down. Gaster flopped down beside him.

  
  


“I didn’t do anything!” He argued, his hands starting to gesture wildly in a nervous sort of panic. Being around so many other monsters was not something he enjoyed.

  
  


“just… play it cool. do it for pap.” Sans sighed and opened up his pamphlet of the play just for something to stare at.

  
  


Gaster sighed and slumped down in his seat, hoping and praying that no one else came up to him. He leaned his head in his palm and nervously twitched his leg, occasionally signing with a free hand out of agitation.

  
  


Thankfully Sans’ choice of seating let them go mostly unseen, although a few other monsters did pass comment on him as they walked by.

 

The lights dimmed and the play began, a few of the other monster children taking their places on stage.

  
  


“Wow, some of these parents suck at making costumes.” Gaster commented, probably a little bit too loudly. Sans abruptly smacked his mouth with the program. He winced even though it didn’t hurt and sunk lower in his chair.

  
  


It was a relatively short play and after a few more monsters made their appearance, it was Papyrus’ time to shine. He waddled onto the set, his arms covered in feathered wings, his shoes made to look like webbed feet, and a duck bill over his mouth that moved whenever he talked.

  
  


Gaster’s bored, disinterested expression changed instantly. He sat up in his seat and grinned like an idiot. “YEAH PAPYRUS!” He yelled before Sans smacked his arm and yanked him down.

  
  


Papyrus smiled and waved from the stage before he read his lines… or rather, his one line. Once he was finished the doctor turned and looked at Sans, his voice hushed.

  
  


“What? Can’t I even cheer him on?”

  
  


“no! this isn’t baseball!” Sans argued.

  
  


Gaster threw up his hands in defeat and went back to watching the play, behaving for the most part during what little of it remained. As it neared the end and the fox made its appearance, it played out just as though the doctor had mentioned before, the fowl being lead inside its den before over-dramatically saying things such as ‘oh no!’ or ‘ahhh!’

  
  


The doctor could barely contain himself, snorting with laughter and covering his mouth. As the curtain closed he turned to Sans and grinned. “I told you!”

  
  


“why did they pick this?” Sans asked aloud, gesturing towards the stage. “what a terrible ending.”

  
  


“ This is why Pap should have picked the fox.”

 


	5. Home Movies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gaster finds and repairs a video camera. Papyrus makes his first home-movie.

Most monster technology in the underground was salvaged from whatever the humans dumped into the mountain, give or take a few things here and there. Dr. Gaster was never particularly interested in things for entertainment such as television or phones, his assistants handled most of that. However his latest find did get him at least a little curious; a large VHS camcorder.

  
  


It was bulky and cumbersome and the tapes he found were usually well past the point of salvaging, but that never stopped him from making his own. Recording the events of his life became a little more important to him now that he had a family, and his audio recorder used primarily for taking notes on projects just wasn’t enough to capture what he wanted.

  
  


Gaster spent the week disassembling the huge recorder, taking it apart and using the pieces to build his own, far superior version that was smaller and easier to hold. It still used VHS tapes he had to put together, but anything more advanced wouldn’t fall down into the mountain for years to come.

  
  


Once his work was finally finished he took it home to show off.

  
  


“Boys! Look!” The doctor said as he opened the door, camcorder stuck to his good eye as it recorded his surroundings. Sans and Papyrus looked over at him from the couch, the eldest having nearly fallen asleep while his little brother sat in front of it coloring.

  
  


“WHAT’S THAT?” Papyrus asked, instantly stopping what he was doing to stand up and make his way over.

  
  


“It’s called a video camera!” The doctor explained and held it down to his son. “Look through that lens right there and you can see everything going on in front of you while it records it on the little tape inside!” He said enthusiastically, always eager to explain things and how they worked even if he had to dumb it down so a child would understand. Had Sans been more interested, or perhaps less lazy, he could have stood there and described every single little piece that moved to make it all come together.

  
  


“COOOOL!” The little skeleton grinned and started to walk around with it, eventually zooming in on his brother’s nose and laughing. Sans lazily waved him off and yawned while he sat up.

  
  


“any particular reason you fixed one of those up, ‘dings?”

  
  


“Not really. It’s just something to play with.” Gaster shrugged. “You’re both free to use it however you want.”

  
  


“YAY!” Papyrus said, removing the lens from his eye socket. “I ALREADY KNOW WHAT I WANT TO DO!”

  
  


“what’s that, pap?” Sans asked.

  
  


“A COOKING SHOW LIKE ON TV!”

  
  


Gaster instantly held up his hands. “I am not getting involved in cooking.” He began to think back on his last few attempts, each one resulting in nearly burning down the entire house. The last one had caused him to go out and find a new stove.

  
  


“DON’T WORRY, DAD! I’LL DO ALL THE COOKING AND YOU CAN BE MY ASSISTANT! SANS, YOU CAN RECORD IT!” Papyrus handed the camera to his brother, who was already grinning at the mere idea of their father playing as Pap’s assistant.

  
  


“okay.”

  
  


Papyrus rushed to the kitchen, eagerly grabbing a little play apron he had gotten at one point in time covered in cute little ducks. His father groaned and followed, dragging a stool with him and sitting down as he watched his son fly about grabbing things to throw together in order to make… something that was probably not going to be very edible. Sans took a seat on the table, the lens going to his eye socket as he recorded, trying desperately to follow his little brother’s bouncy movements.

  
  


“OKAY! LET’S BEGIN!”

  
  


“bro, don’t you mean… **lettuce** begin?”

  
  


“ Oh come on, Sans. That’s too  ** cheesy ** .” Gaster grinned, the two of them starting to chuckle as Papyrus flailed a spatula he had grabbed for no particular reason.

  
  


“NO! NO PUNS ALLOWED IN MY COOKING SHOW!”

  
  


“okay, okay.” Sans laughed.

  
  


“BESIDES, THE CAMERAMAN IS SUPPOSED TO BE QUIET!”

  
  


“that’s **ice** cold, bro.”

  
  


Papyrus narrowed his eye sockets.

  
  


“ Honestly Pap, you really should have…” Gaster leaned closer to him for dramatic effect. “...  ** egg- ** spected this.”

  
  


The little skeleton smacked him with the spatula.

  
  


“Ow.” The doctor said plainly before sitting back upright.

  
  


Papyrus turned to the camera, grinning and with a hand on his hip. “OKAY! WE’RE GOING TO MAKE A TASTY DINNER TONIGHT WITH THE HELP OF MY LOVELY ASSISTANT… DAD!” He thrust his arms towards Gaster, who was sat slumped in the stool and looking not the least bit happy he was on camera or able to get in-character.

  
  


“Yaaaay.” The doctor wiggled his hands in the air.

  
  


“ASSISTANT DAD, GET US A PAN!”

  
  


The doctor stood up and dug around in the cabinets before doing just that, slapping an old cooking pan onto the stove with about as much grace as an elephant.

  
  


“GOOD! NOW…” Papyrus walked over to the counter full of ingredients, barely able to reach them. “DAD, LIFT ME UP.”

  
  


Gaster reached down, lifting the little skeleton up so he could begin putting everything into the pan. Sans moved around, laying on the table so he could get a shot of them working.

  
  


Papyrus began to put everything he liked into the pan. Tomatoes, strawberry yogurt, some of his favorite cereal, animal crackers, you name it. With each added ingredient both Gaster and Sans looked more and more horrified. Papyrus, of course, was happily describing everything as he put it in and how good it was going to be because it was everything he liked.

  
  


The doctor turned and looked at Sans, still holding the little skeleton over the stove. “This is the night we die.”

  
  


Sans tried to keep from laughing, the camera shaking as he watched the horror unfold in front of him.

  
  


“WAIT, YOU DIDN’T EVEN TURN IT ON!” Papyrus frowned, looking up at his father.

  
  


“We’re really gonna cook this?”

  
  


“OF COURSE!”

  
  


“... Okay.” Gaster looked around for a moment, his hands full with holding Papyrus over the stove. Laziness took over, his eyes glowing purple to turn the stove on with magic instead. “There.”

  
  


Eventually Papyrus deemed his food ‘done’ and had Gaster turn off the stove. He looked down at his creation happily, a mix of tomatoes, yogurt, cereal, and crackers among other things.

  
  


“NOW WE EAT!”

  
  


The doctor set Papyrus on his feet and grabbed the handle of the pan, staring down at the bubbling concoction. “... Well. I’ve had a good run. I lived hard. I died hard.”

  
  


“YOU HAVEN’T EVEN TASTED IT YET!” Papyrus argued as he grabbed a spoon and held it up to his father, who took it hesitantly.

  
  


“Shouldn’t you be trying this first? You’re the chef.”

  
  


“OH! YOU'RE RIGHT.” Papyrus reached up, taking the spoonful of ‘mystery food’ from his father as it was handed down to him. He ate it and smiled. “IT’S GOOD!”

  
  


“What?” Gaster narrowed his one good eye and took the spoon from him to try it for himself. 

  
  


Regret hit him instantly.

  
  


His face turned up and he tried his hardest to keep it down, much to Sans’ amusement as he laughed behind the camera. Gaster braced himself on the stove before scooping up more and walking towards Sans.

  
  


“ oh no. no, no.” The boy hopped off the table and started to run away. The last thing the camera captured before it shut off was Sans’ slippered feet running for his life.

 


	6. Bug

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A bug somehow makes its way into the lab. Gaster nearly destroys part of the house to get rid of it.

It had only been a year since Papyrus’ “birth”, which meant that Gaster was still spending quite a lot of time in the little lab they had converted into their home. Despite how capable Sans was at taking care of his brother, the doctor still felt a little obligated to stick around just in case there was any sort of emergency.

  
  


Gaster sat at his table going over some of the reports from his assistants while the two boys played in the center of the room. The tiny sound of buzzing broke the doctor’s concentration, the white dots of his eyes zipping away from the papers and looking around through his glasses.

  
  


Ever since the accident his vision had been horrible. Even with help with his new spectacles it still wasn’t what it used to be. At one point he could have pinned a fly to a wall with a pencil out of boredom, now he could barely make out words across the room.

  
  


After a moment the buzzing seemed to stop, the doctor slowly looking around before going back to his work. … Only to have it start right back up again.

  
  


“Okay.” He said in annoyance as he slapped his papers down on the desk. “There’s a bug or something in here and it’s going to make me go nuts. Sans, can you see it?” The doctor twisted around in his chair to look at the little boy.

  
  


Sans looked up from what he was doing, which was more or less just watching Papyrus build things out of plastic blocks. “uh…” He looked around and then pointed to it, a tiny fly buzzing around just above Gaster’s head.

  
  


The doctor looked up and squinted his good eye. He finally managed to see the tiny black dot flying above him and reached for some of the reports on his desk to roll them up into a tube. He stood and began to haphazardly flail the paper around trying to smack the little bug out of the air, but kept missing. After a few tries he growled and looked at Sans, who was grinning like an idiot.

  
  


“Sans, your eyes are better than mine, see if you can grab it with your magic.”

  
  


“and miss watching you flail around? no way.” Sans laughed.

  
  


The doctor groaned and went right back to flinging around the rolled up paper. This continued for a few moments before he eventually tried something different, dropping the tube and clapping his hands over where the fly had been seconds before.

  
  


… Only to watch it fly right out of the holes in his palms.

  
  


Gaster stared down at his hands for a moment before they fell to his sides. “Oh god dammit.”

  
  


Sans couldn’t stop himself from laughing. Even Papyrus had stopped what he had been doing at this point to watch his father stumble about trying to kill the bug, both of them giggling at the scene in front of them.

  
  


“Yeah yeah, ha-ha.” The doctor grumbled. “Sans, come on, kill this thing! Or at least stop it so I can.” He gestured to the open air in front of him, the fly buzzing right in front of his face as if to mock him.

  
  


“nuh-uh.” Sans shook his head and grinned.

  
  


Gaster narrowed his eye. “Fine. You wanna see how I deal with little annoyances? I’ll show you.”

  
  


Sans began to regret not helping him as he watched the doctor storm out of the room. Only a few moments later and he came back holding what looked like a long metal stick with a cannon on the end.

  
  


“‘dings…” Sans mumbled as he preemptively reached out to pull Papyrus a little closer.

  
  


“I made tons of these for the war.” He grinned, pointing to the hand cannon by his side. “The humans had them too of course, but I made them better. This is just one of the earlier prototypes. The end product had more barrels on the end and spun.”

  
  


Somehow Sans didn’t look very impressed.

  
  


“ What? Look, this is how it works.” Gaster approached Sans and began to explain it. “You put your palms over these inscriptions it harnesses the magic of the monster wielding it to fire out their attack from the end.” He failed to realize that Sans might be a little uncomfortable talking about weapons his creator made for a number of reasons.

  
  


“Normally skeleton monsters can only attack by summoning from the ground, but this allowed us to fire them forward instead!” The doctor said with enthusiasm before putting the pole of the cannon over his shoulder and aiming the muzzle towards the wall. He looked around, trying to find out where that pesky fly had gone.

  
  


“are you sure you should be using that inside?” The little skeleton questioned from the floor.

  
  


Gaster laughed, “Of course not.”

  
  


That didn’t seem to stop him as he placed his hands over the inscriptions. His eyes began to glow purple before the same colour spread across the weapon in his hands until it finally reached the end of the muzzle. There was a click before he braced himself with his legs and fired to where he could just make out the tiny buzzing bug in front of him.

  
  


A blue bone flew out at incredibly speed from the end, piercing through the wall and sticking out halfway before dissipating. It left a sizable hole, the plaster crumbling into a pile underneath.

  
  


“Did I get it?” He grinned and looked around. Sans and Papyrus had put their hands over where their ears would be, the sound the cannon had made having filled the room. As the noise faded there was a faint buzzing as the little fly calmly passed in front of Gaster’s face.

  
  


“You little…” Gaster mumbled before he started to lift the hand cannon again.

  
  


“wait, wait!” Sans finally stood up. “i’ll help you get it, just… don’t fire that thing again.”

  
  


The little skeleton looked around to find the fly, his eye flaring blue and yellow. Eventually he caught sight of it and grabbed hold. It was tough catching something so small and he had to really focus to keep it still.

  
  


Gaster wasted no time in grabbing a book and smacking it out of the air. It landed silently at their feet.  “ HAH!”

  
  


Sans walked over, scooping the dead little fly into his hands before dumping it into the trash. “feel better now?” He commented dryly to his father.

  
  


“Damn right.” Gaster said, straightening up. He went back to his chair and sighed. “Back to work.”

  
  


Papyrus blinked from where he was sitting, having shoved a number of his digits into his mouth to suck on. His older brother sat down in front of him. “actions over.”

  
  


He glanced over to the hole in the wall made by the weapon Gaster had toted inside and grimaced a little. That would definitely be there forever.

 


	7. Snowdin Vacation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An extension on the family's trip to Snowdin.

Taking a few days break in Snowdin was exactly what they all needed. It was good to get out of the lab for once, even for Gaster. The beds of the inn were much more comfortable than their own back home, that was for sure. Not having to step over books and empty fast food containers was a nice change of pace too. Papyrus in particular was enjoying the cleanliness of their little room, although his family had managed to make at least a part of it a mess in record time.

  
  


After a good night’s sleep Papyrus was still, predictably, the first one awake. He jumped from the bed he shared with Sans and wasted no time to rush over to his father still asleep in the bed beside them.

  
  


“IT’S TIME TO WAKE UP!” He announced joyfully, bouncing on the mattress with his knees. A low hollow moan escaped Gaster’s mouth. His hands mindlessly flailed about until they finally found Papyrus, grabbing him to stop his jumping before yanking him down into the pillows.

  
  


“Sometimes I wonder if I accidentally gave you all my energy.” He mumbled, Papyrus giggling as he was held down into the blankets. After a moment of laying there with his eyes closed he finally let out a yawn and started to sit up. “Okay, okay, go try to wake up Sans.”

  
  


Once freed Papyrus jumped from one bed to the next, the rocking of his brother’s mattress doing nothing to wake him up.

  
  


“SANS!” He shouted before starting to wildly shake his brother. “WAKE UP!”

  
  


A low groan not unlike his father’s mumbled out from the covers as he tried to pull them up over his head. “vacation.” He grumbled, wanting to do nothing but sleep in like he did every day. Vacation was a good excuse for that, right?

  
  


“VACATION IS A TIME TO HAVE FUN, NOT SLEEP!” Papyrus argued.

  
  


“sleep is fun.” Sans mumbled back.

  
  


“UGH.” The skeleton’s shoulders slumped before he abruptly yanked the blankets off his brother. Sans didn’t move, so Papyrus chose another approach. He circled around the bed and stood beside him, grabbing his arms before starting to pull him upwards. Papyrus was already just as tall as he was, if not a little taller, so it was quite easy.

  
  


Sans moaned the entire way as he was pulled into a sitting position and then yanked to his feet.

  
  


“HAH!” Papyrus grinned and dragged his brother away from the bed, knowing full well if he let him go near it he would just climb back in. Instead he dragged him to the bathroom, where Gaster was already brushing his teeth.

  
  


“We’ll head on over to Grillby’s first for some breakfast. He invited us over since the bar doesn’t open until noon.” Gaster said as he rinsed off his toothbrush.

  
  


“OKAY.” Papyrus said as he began to brush his teeth, passing Sans his toothbrush in the process. He held it there for a moment, his brother standing still with his eyes closed and head slumped. Papyrus narrowed his eye sockets before he started to press the toothbrush into his brother’s cheek. “SANS.”

  
  


“mm…” Sans mumbled, reaching up to take the toothbrush and begin brushing his teeth without anything on it. Papyrus rolled his eye sockets as best he could without actual eyeballs before grabbing the toothpaste and shoving it into his brother’s hand.

  
  


He really wondered how someone could be so tired after waking up.

  
  


The three skeletons finished getting ready and walked from the inn to Grillby’s house, which wasn’t too far from the bar. Then again nothing was too far from the bar in Snowdin, all the houses tightly knit together along a single pathway through the village.

  
  


Gaster knocked on the door to his friends home, a moment later Grillby appearing in the doorway. Instantly the aroma of something delicious hit them.

 

“Wow, getting started already?” The scientist smirked as he stepped inside. “You didn’t have to start alone. I would have helped.”

  
  


“... No you wouldn’t…” Grillby said, his voice as dry as ever.

  
  


The doctor laughed, “Yeah you’re right.”

  
  


While Grillby went back to man the kitchen the three kicked the snow from their shoes and removed their coats, or at least the boys did. Gaster didn’t seem to ever change his attire or bundle up, still wearing the same black lab coat and sweater underneath as always.

  
  


As he wandered through the living room a photo caught his eye depicting Grillby sitting beside another fire monster on what looked to be a dinner date. The skeleton grinned and picked it up, whistling through his teeth.

  
  


“I see you’ve got the **hots** for another monster, Grillby.”

  
  


The sound of utensils abruptly dropping came from the kitchen before the fire monster walked into the room and snatched the photo from Gaster before putting it back.

 

“Aw, come on. Not even going to tell me her name?” Gaster grinned.

  
  


“... No…” Grillby said before going right back to the kitchen. The skeleton followed him. “Fine, fine.”

  
  


Gaster knew why Grillby was keeping his relationship a secret from him. Whether it was before or after the war, he had always had a fun hobby of “cock-blocking” whenever another monster showed interest. It was pretty easy after he had a few drinks, his social awkwardness gone and instead replaced by loud obnoxiousness. Both of them had moved on from those days of course, but Grillby still probably hated him for it.

  
  


Gaster himself had never been in a relationship, nor had he ever really had much interest in them. Any monsters that had shown interest were always abruptly shot down. How they had found him appealing in the first place was a mystery that eluded him even today.

  
  


The doctor eventually took a seat at the kitchen table, knowing full well that Grillby wouldn’t want him anywhere near his stove. It wasn’t long after that Sans and Papyrus finally followed him. Sans took a seat by his father while Papyrus stood beside the fire monster and watched him cook.

  
  


“WHAT ARE YOU MAKING?”

  
  


Grillby said nothing, instead lifting one of the sausages from the pan and holding it so the skeleton could see.

  
  


“COOL! WHAT ELSE?”

  
  


He set the meat down and paused for a moment before walking away and grabbing a stool to set down by the counter. A flaming hand gestured for him to climb up and watch. Papyrus did so eagerly, pulling himself up and leaning on the counter to watch Grillby cook them breakfast.

  
  


“I SHOULD LEARN TO COOK SOMEDAY. THEN MAYBE WE CAN EAT REAL FOOD.” Papyrus turned to narrow his eye sockets at Gaster and Sans, both of them getting themselves some coffee.

  
  


“Don’t give me that look!” The doctor pointed at Papyrus. “I’ve tried and no one likes how it ends up, not even me.”

  
  


Papyrus looked at Sans, whos eyes bounced around before he smiled wider and shrugged. “too lazy.”

  
  


“UGH.” The skeleton rolled his eye sockets for the second time that day already.

  
  


Grillby finished cooking soon enough, setting a rather beautiful looking breakfast in front of them. He sat down with them, everyone digging in and the boys enjoying having a nice, decent meal for once. Even Gaster seemed to be loving it.

  
  


“Damn I missed your food.” He laughed, having had many a morning hung-over where the fire monster had cooked for them both.

  
  


The four made small-talk as they ate before eventually saying their goodbyes and thanking Grillby for his hospitality. They couldn’t stay long, he would need to open the bar soon and Gaster didn’t want to over-impose, so the three skeletons made their way back towards the inn.

  
  


As they walked Papyrus started to linger behind a little, bending down to scoop up a pile of snow into his mittens. He molded it into a ball before grinning and chucking it towards the back of his brother’s head.

  
  


“THINK FAST!” He yelled just in time for Sans to turn and get the side of his face pummeled by a snowball.

  
  


Sans grinned and reached down, grabbing his own pile of snow and throwing it at Papyrus just as he ducked around the side of the inn. The younger skeleton cackled as it hit the wood and began to make his own pile of snowballs.

  
  


“Oh is this what we’re doing now?” Gaster asked, barely finishing his sentence before Sans pelted him point-blank on the head before laughing and running to hide behind a bush.

  
  


“Wow, not even giving me a chance to-” He was cut off again as Papyrus nailed him in the chest from around the side of the inn.

  
  


“Oh I see how it is!” Gaster grinned and walked to hide behind a tree.

  
  


The three of them built up an arsenal of snowballs for themselves, throwing them between each other and managing to hit every now and then. Gaster even used the holes in his palms to build them quicker, pushing his hands in the snow and pulling out what that had accumulated in the circle missing from his hands.

  
  


Eventually it dwindled down to just Papyrus and Gaster throwing snowballs at one another, Sans having grown tired from throwing and instead deciding to watch from the bush he hid behind. It all came to a close as Papyrus hit Gaster square over his eye, the snow falling down into the crack in his skull.

  
  


“AHH!” The doctor clutched his head and tried to wipe off what he could. “Brain freeze!” He shook his head before falling over into the snow, laying flat on his back motionless.

  
  


“OH NO!” Papyrus ran over to his father, Sans casually following. He knew what was coming.

  
  


“BWAH!” Gaster yelled, grabbing a handful of snow and smushing it into his son’s face.

  
  


“AHHHH! DAD!” Papyrus wiped the snow from his face, coughing. “YOU GOT IT INTO MY NOSE!”

  
  


Gaster laughed and sat up. “You’ll be fine, kiddo. I should probably go dry my head out though.”

  
  


He stood and helped Papyrus to his feet, the three of them heading back into the inn. Sans chuckled as he watched both Gaster and Papyrus try and get snow from out of their skulls in various places.

  
  


“ that was fun.” He grinned.

 


	8. The Talk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gaster talks to the boys about relationships. It doesn’t go well.

The school day was winding to a close, Sans already waiting outside in his usual spot as Papyrus pushed open the large double-doors and headed outside. He caught sight of a monster that had been talking with Sans after school nearly every day for weeks now before she smiled and left, waving to his older brother before all of Sans’ attention turned to Papyrus.

  
  


“hey bro. how was class today?” Sans asked as they started to walk their usual route home.

  
  


“IT WAS FUN. WHO IS THAT YOU’RE ALWAYS TALKING TO?” He asked, boney hands holding onto the straps of his backpack.

  
  


“just a friend from class.” He shrugged and smiled a little.

  
  


“A BEST FRIEND?” Papyrus asked, noticing the little smile spread across his brother’s face.

  
  


“i guess so.”

  
  


“NEAT-O! MAYBE YOU SHOULD INVITE HER OVER SOMETIME!” After all, that’s what he did with his best friends… even though they were a little intimidated by his father.

  
  


“ehhh, maybe not pap.” Sans laughed, undoubtedly thinking the same thing Papyrus was, but to a larger extreme. He was past the age where it was typical to have someone of the opposite gender as your ‘best friend’, even if he wasn’t especially interested in pursuing the relationship romantically.

  
  


The two of them headed home in the usual fashion, Papyrus much more keen to talk about himself and his day than pry into his brother’s affairs. They arrived home before Gaster was finished with… whatever it was he was working on at the time and set about lazing around before dinner. Sans almost always ended up taking a nap on the couch while Papyrus got a head start on his homework. Eventually, as night began to creep up, the doctor finally made it back home.

  
  


He opened the door and sighed, instantly tossing a clipboard onto the table. He looked tired and was covered in sweat and what looked like oil, but you never really knew with him.

  
  


“BAD DAY, DAD?” Papyrus asked, eye sockets looking at his father, then peering over at the clipboard that had been tossed in front of him. There were lots of terrible scribbles in his father’s handwriting amongst blotches of the same black goop.

  
  


“Ehhh…” Gaster mumbled, gesturing with his hands about being tired and something with the core. He then rubbed at his eye sockets and sighed before looking back up. “Did you kids eat dinner?”

  
  


“NOT YET.” Papyrus said, watching as his father pushed himself from the door and walked to the kitchen. “I CAN MAKE IT IF YOU WANT. WE HAVE SOME FROZEN PIZZA.”

  
  


Gaster opened the refrigerator, stared inside, then closed it. He looked down at his hands, dirty and sore. “Yeah that might be a good idea. I’m going to get clean up.” He turned, leaving Papyrus to ‘cook’ dinner in order to wash up.

  
  


Papyrus began to warm up a pizza before going back to his homework, Gaster joining him at the table a few moments later shirtless and scrubbing at the joints of his fingers with a toothbrush.

  
  


“I think I should start wearing gloves.” He commented dryly, eying the black gunk between his phalanges. After a moment he paused and removed his smudged glasses before getting back to work. “So what did you do at school today, kiddo?” As tired as he was, it was still nice to come home and listen to his boys talk about their day.

  
  


“WE’RE STILL WORKING ON FRACTIONS, BUT THEY’RE PRETTY EASY.” Papyrus said, “I THINK SANS HAS MADE A BEST FRIEND TOO! I TOLD HIM HE SHOULD INVITE HER OVER SOMETIME.” He smiled.

  
  


Gaster paused and raised a ridge of his brow, toothbrush poised over his fingers. “... Is that so?” He smirked and leaned around to peer at the couch where Sans was sleeping before his attention went back to Papyrus. “What’s she look like?”

  
  


“SHE’S FLUFFY AND YELLOW.” Papyrus said before making a gesture of ears with his hands. “HAS EARS AND A TAIL TOO.”

  
  


“Ah, cat monster probably.” Gaster nodded and smirked just as the oven dinged. He stood up to pull it out of the oven. “Wake up Sans and tell him dinner is ready.”

  
  


Papyrus slipped from his seat and did just that, walking over to the couch before shaking his brother by the shoulder. “SANS, DINNER IS READY.”

  
  


“mmnnn…” The skeleton mumbled, a puddle of drool on the cushion under his cheek. “‘kay.” He inhaled sharply as Papyrus walked off and sat up, wiping his mouth.

  
  


The three of them each took their seat at the table, Gaster cutting up the pizza and sitting down. Papyrus was the only one to grab a plate, the doctor simply grabbing a slice and eating it as is and Sans flopped into his chair before doing much the same while still half asleep.

  
  


“So.” Gaster began through a mouthful, smirking. “I hear you’ve got a _best friend_ at school now.”

  
  


Sans paused, pizza hanging from his mouth. The white dots of his eyes bounced to Papyrus, who was happily eating his own slice obliviously, then back to the doctor.

  
  


Gaster wiggled the ridges of his brows.

  
  


A long groan escaped Sans’ mouth and he rolled his eyes. “just a friend. she’s in the same classes and likes to talk after school while i’m waiting for pap.”

  
  


The doctor started to nod up and down slowly, the wiggling of his brows never stopping.

  
  


“stop that.” Sans narrowed his eyes. “really, she’s just a friend.”

  
  


Gaster opened his mouth to make some sort of snarky comment, but was cut off as Papyrus spoke up. “HAVE YOU EVER HAD A BEST FRIEND, DAD?”

  
  


The doctor blinked. “Romantically? No.”

  
  


“NEVER? NOT LIKE ALL THE MOMS AND DADS MY FRIENDS HAVE?”

  
  


“Nope.”

  
  


“WHY NOT?”

  
  


“Never really interested in that sort of thing.” Gaster shrugged, the talk having become less about annoying Sans and instead explaining things to Papyrus he never thought he would.

  
  


“WHY?”

  
  


“Uh…” The doctor stammered and looked down at his pizza. “Um…” After a moment of silence he shrugged.

  
  


“WHAT ABOUT GRILLBY? I THOUGHT HE WAS YOUR BEST FRIEND?”

  
  


Sans laughed through a mouthful of pizza.

  
  


“WOW. Okay.” Gaster set down his food. “Grillby isn’t that kind of best friend. He’s like… you and your friends. You hang out with them, right? But you don’t… uh…”

  
  


Sans started to laugh even harder. This was better revenge than he could have ever planned himself. Papyrus blinked and looked between them, wondering why his father was so flustered and why Sans was laughing so hard.

  
  


“WHAT? I DON’T GET IT.”

  
  


“Oh my god.” Gaster put his head in his hands. “I didn’t sign up for this.”

  
  


“you totally deserve this.” Sans said between chuckles. The doctor narrowed his eye sockets at him but eventually sighed and turned to Papyrus.

  
  


“You’ll learn that in school when you’re older.” He finally decided, not wanting to have to go through this talk himself when he really had no experience in it, or cared about it.

  
  


“ UGH. FINE.” Papyrus groaned.

 


	9. Nice Cream

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Farfig takes Sans and Papyrus out for nice cream.

Now that Sans was free to roam around the facility he quite often managed to run into the first monster he met aside from Gaster, the green dragon by the name of Farfig. She was always so kind to them and went out of her way to treat them well, filling a sort of hole they had due to lacking any sort of mother figure… Or a responsible adult role model in general.

  
  


Sans and Papyrus were still little, the younger of the two not even old enough to be going into school yet. They spent a lot of time running around the building playing hide and seek or tag, although Papyrus wasn’t the greatest at either of them yet. Sometimes he didn’t quite understand that you had to be fully hidden, or that ‘it’ meant you had to tag the other person. Nevertheless he was Sans’ best and only friend.

  
  


The assistants had all turned into makeshift guardians for the two boys, making sure they stayed out of the more dangerous areas of the facility and that they were always well-fed and happy. Farfig, however, was the only one to really go above and beyond when it came to the two little skeletons. During one of her days off she made her way through the lab and down the dimly lit corridor towards where she knew the boys, and Dr. Gaster, to be living.

  
  


She knocked, having only to wait a moment before it opened and the rather intimidating royal scientist loomed overhead. Farfig was a short, stout monster and Gaster was about as opposite as you could get. Still, she remained resolved for the sake of Sans and Papyrus and stood her ground.

  
  


“Are the boys around right now? I promised Sans I would take him and Papyrus out for Nice Cream today.” She offered Gaster a smile, who merely narrowed his good eye to match the constant slant of the other. Before he could say anything, however, a familiar voice chirped up from behind him.

  
  


“hi farfig.” Sans smiled, pushing his father’s legs out of the way and pulling the door further open.

  
  


“Hello Sans.” The dragon smiled, leaning down a little to get a better look at him. “Ready to go?”

  
  


“sure. lemme just get pap.”

  
  


While Sans vanished behind the door, Farfig was left standing with the doctor, who didn’t look at all in his element. The skeleton’s gaze followed Sans inside before turning back to Farfig and for a moment he seemed keen to tell her off, but… he didn’t. Instead he held the door open for her.

  
  


“Oh, thank you.” Farfig smiled and stepped inside, closing the door behind her. Inside was about as much of a mess as she expected, but she lacked the confidence to offer to come by and clean it, even if it was for the sake of the boys.

  
  


“Do you need any money?” He suddenly asked, his voice disjointed and cold.

  
  


“Hm?” The monster blinked and looked up at him, having not expected Gaster to even talk to her at all. “Oh.” She chuckled, “No, that’s alright. This is my treat.”

  
  


The doctor nodded and turned to watch Sans as he tied his little brother’s shoes. Farfig snuck a glance at him and smiled. As threatening and distant as the doctor was, she could tell that having children had really sort of opened up a part of him that she had never seen before. Of course their time together was always very brief, but it was still a noticeable change, especially right now as she stood beside him outside of the workplace.

  
  


Perhaps he wasn’t as terrifying and cold as she thought.

  
  


Sans pulled his little brother to his feet and held his hand. “okay, ready.” He smiled, leading Papyrus over to the dragon.

  
  


Farfig opened the door for them, pausing after they had gone through to finally meet the doctor’s gaze. The white dots in his sockets were always so unsettling to look at. Still, she met them with her own and gave him a smile. “I’ll have them back in a few hours.”

  
  


Gaster nodded after a moment of hesitation and the door closed behind them.

  
  


The dragon lead the two boys down the long corridor and out of the laboratory into the capitol. “So have either of you had Nice Cream before?”

  
  


Sans shook his head.

  
  


“Oh I think you’ll like it.” She smiled and peered around Sans to look at Papyrus. “What flavor do you think you’re going to get, Papyrus? They have vanilla, chocolate, or strawberry.”

  
  


The little skeleton looked over at her, blinking his eye sockets. “ALL’A DEM!”

  
  


“All of them?” Farfig asked, then laughed. “I don’t think your stomach is big enough to try all of them.”

  
  


“only one flavor at a time, bro.” Sans smirked.

  
  


“WHY?”

  
  


“because you can’t eat three at a time.”

  
  


“WHY?”

  
  


Sans made a face. “uh…”

  
  


Farfig laughed again, “Don’t worry Papyrus, we’ll go more than once and you can try the other flavors. How does that sound?”

  
  


“OKAY!”

  
  


The three of them walked along the busy roads of the capitol before coming to a tiny stand manned by a rabbit monster.

  
  


“Three Nice Creams, please.” Farfig said before pulling out her purse and fishing for the appropriate amount of gold. “Tell him what flavors you want, boys.”

  
  


“vanilla.” Sans said, then looked down at his brother. “which are you going to try, bro?”

  
  


Papyrus put his finger against his teeth and stared up at the sign with the pictures of each flavor before pointing. “DAT ONE.”

  
  


“strawberry? okay.”

  
  


“I’ll have chocolate then.” The dragon said, handing over the gold before getting their treats. She handed down the two Nice Creams to the skeletons before walking them over to a nearby table and sitting down.

  
  


As she started to eat her own she watched the two do the same, although Sans didn’t jump onto his right away. Instead he made sure Papyrus knew how to hold it and how to eat before getting to his own.

  
  


“So is everything still okay back home? No issues?” Farfig asked. This was a common question from her and the more she asked it, the more Sans opened up a little. It was nice to have an adult to talk to that wasn’t Gaster.

  
  


“yeah, everything is pretty okay. ‘dings tried cooking again. it… didn’t turn out.” Sans laughed a little. His attention then snapped back to his little brother as he nearly dropped his Nice Cream, a hand quickly grabbing it by the stick before taking it and holding it himself.

  
  


The dragon smiled, “You really are a great big brother, Sans. Papyrus is lucky to have you watch over him.”

  
  


The skeleton blushed a little and gave a meek little smile. “thanks. he’s my bro, we gotta watch out for each other.”

  
  


“That’s true. You’ll always have each others backs, I’m sure.”

  
  


The three of them ate their Nice Cream, Papyrus making quite the mess and eating it slower than the others. Eating Nice Cream was a new experience for him, so he ended up tilting his head at odd angles and biting at it a lot more than he probably needed to. In the end he was covered in pink smears across his teeth and cheeks, his fingers just as sticky as his brother’s who had the task of holding it for him.

  
  


Once he was finished Farfig reached into her purse to pull out a handkerchief. “You’ll get the hang of it eventually, Papyrus.” She walked over and licked the cloth before starting to wipe at the mess on the little skeleton’s face. Sans, meanwhile, set about just sucking his fingers clean.

  
  


Papyrus whined as he was rubbed and wiped, the dragon taking his chin in her hand to make cleaning easier. Once he was clean enough she put her handkerchief away. “Did you boys enjoy your first Nice Cream?”

  
  


“YEAH!” Papyrus grinned, the discomfort of being cleaned already a distant memory. Sans nodded.

  
  


“Alright, I should get you two back home. We’ll come out again another time, alright?”

  
  


Sans nodded and helped Papyrus off his chair before leaning down to retie his shoes and take his hand. The three made their way back along the city and into the facility, Farfig stopping just outside the door to their home. Sans opened it and walked inside, hovering slightly in the doorway.

  
  


“thanks farfig.” He smiled, his little brother then doing much the same.

  
  


“THANKS!” Papyrus yelled before turning and hugging the stout dragon monster and stumbling inside. “DAD! NICE CREAM IS GOOD.”

  
  


“Oh yeah?” Gaster said, his voice coming from inside in a tone Farfig had never heard before. It was calm, loving, and… quite nice, actually.

  
  


As Sans moved to close the door he appeared, although his expression was about the same as it had been when she picked both of the boys up. He lingered for a moment looking awkward and unsure of what to say until, eventually, the tiniest hint of a smile could be seen in the corner of his mouth.

  
  


“Thanks.”

  
  


Farfig smiled back. “It’s no trouble. Your boys are very sweet.”

  
  


Gaster looked back at them, watching as Sans helped Papyrus take off his shoes. “... Yeah they are.”

 


	10. Fireworks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The family find fireworks at the dump and spend the day setting them off together.

During a particularly slow weekend the skeleton family decided to do something they didn’t do too often together; head to the dump. Gaster usually did this by himself, the boys typically not too keen on wading around in garbage and happier to stay home and watch TV or play in the hallways. Today was different, Sans and Papyrus in tow as the doctor lead them through Hotland and closer to Waterfall.

  
  


The dump wasn’t always a treasure trove of discovery, but usually Gaster could find something to tinker with on a monthly basis or so. This time around it was Papyrus who made the find of the day.

  
  


“DAD!” He yelled as he pulled out a few soggy packs of… something from the garbage. “WHAT ARE THESE?” Papyrus turned, nearly slipping down the trash before walking over to his father and holding up a few boxes that had been rather colorful at one point in time. Gaster wiped his hands on his lab coat and took the boxes to inspect them.

  
  


After a few moments of squinting through his glasses and turning the boxes over in his hands a wicked smile spread across his face. “Ohhh, Papyrus. You have found something special.”

  
  


“HAVE I?” The little skeleton asked with a grin, his hands clenching into fists in front of him.

  
  


“You certainly have!” Gaster grinned and looked around for Sans. “Sans! Pack it in, we’re heading back home!”

  
  


Sans’ head popped up from over a heap of trash before he climbed over it and slipped down, a few books in his arms. “Oh, what did you find?” Gaster asked, looking down at the objects under his son’s arm.

  
  


“just some books about stars.”

  
  


“Oh, nice.” The doctor smiled and began to lead them back home.

  
  


“SO WHAT ARE THEY?” Papyrus asked as they climbed from the water and back onto the path.

  
  


“They’re fireworks! All we have to do is dry them a bit and make sure they’re intact and we’ve got quite the little show for ourselves! I’ll probably make some of my own too.”

  
  


“OH I’VE SEEN THOSE IN BOOKS.” Papyrus said, automatically taking his brother’s hand as he walked beside him out of habit. “THEY EXPLODE IN THE AIR IN PRETTY COLORS, RIGHT?”

  
  


“Right.” Gaster nodded.

  
  


\--

  
  


Once back home Gaster set about drying the fireworks and their casings, then made sure they were patched up and at least… slightly safe before working on his own. He already had the materials needed, it was just a matter of putting them together and using magic for pizazz and a little more ‘umph’.

  
  


For someone who was bored of making weapons, he really did enjoy making things that could be potentially deadly, didn't he?

  
  


Eventually the time came to set everything up, Gaster using the small clearing outside near their home. A number of the walls on the outside were already singed or cracked from numerous “projects” he had messed around with.

  
  


“We’ll do the smaller ones first.” He said, crossing his legs and sitting on the ground beside his boys. He pulled out a few sparklers that had been with the bunch along with a lighter, handing Sans and Papyrus each one before setting them off.

  
  


“AH!” The younger of the two jumped and held it away from him at first, having not expected the gray stick to begin sparking at him.

  
  


“cool.” Sans smiled, watching the stick burn down, sparking all the way.

  
  


“They won’t hurt you Pap.” The doctor smirked, “These are called sparklers. They’re like… a mini-firework, I guess.” He explained. “It’s basically just a little metal stick dipped in aluminum or iron, something like that.” He shrugged, keeping things relatively simple for Papyrus’ sake who was still a bit young.

  
  


Papyrus and Sans eventually got up and twirled them around to spell their names or chase each other with them. Once finished they moved up to the next thing they had found, bottle rockets.

  
  


After explaining how they worked, Gaster set them up to shoot off over the magma nearby and began to light them. The boys watched as they squealed before shooting into the air and exploding into a rain of color. They had seen plenty of explosions before, but these were by far the prettiest.

  
  


“THEY’RE EVEN PRETTIER IN PERSON.” Papyrus beamed, stood beside his brother a safe distance away.

  
  


Once they were all finished, Gaster moved onto the larger ones they had found. He set up a metal tin to hold them and moved back with his sons, sitting down in the gravel and using his magic to light them rather than walking back and forth.

  
  


“These will start to get loud.” He warned before lighting it. The fuse burnt down slower than the others before there was a loud whistle, both Sans and Papyrus flinching before watching it fly into the air and explode into an array of colors.

  
  


The boys ‘ooed’ and ‘aahed’ as Gaster lit one after another, every one a different color or a combination thereof. He probably hadn’t realized it, but anyone who managed to hear the fireworks over the roar and hum of the lab had undoubtedly started to peer out the windows to watch them. You could probably even see them from certain angles in the city.

  
  


Once they had gone through those as well Sans stretched and leaned against the wall. “that was fun.”

  
  


“YEAH.” Papyrus grinned.

  
  


The doctor stood up and turned to go back inside. “Wait here, I made one for the finale.” Sans and Papyrus looked at one another worriedly.

  
  


A few moments later and Gaster reemerged holding something large and square. As he began to set it up he glanced back at his sons. “We, uh, might want to watch through the door.”

  
  


“oh boy.” Sans mumbled, standing up and guiding Papyrus inside. He watched through the little window as his creator lit the fuse and came running in, closing the door and lifting Papyrus so he could see.

  
  


“The fireworks we found didn’t have any magic in them oddly enough.” He said as they waited for the fuse to burn. “So I made one that did.”

  
  


They waited with baited breath as the fuse got closer and closer until vanishing altogether. After a small delay there was a massive ‘BOOM’ that shook the sides of the building and filled the small area in front of them with light before the firework soared into the air. Each of them angled their necks upwards, watching the ball of light travel higher and higher.

  
  


After a moment it exploded, purple light shooting outwards into the shape of the blasters he had created, it’s jaws unhinging and opening before it slowly faded.

  
  


“COOL!” Papyrus yelled, although his skull was still ringing from the sound.

  
  


Gaster smiled and set him back down on his feet. “Well, that was a fun waste of the afternoon.” He looked down at the two, each a direct clone yet somehow so very, very different from himself and each other. “Now let’s go out for lunch before Asgore sends someone to see what all the noise was about.” He took Papyrus’ hand and began to lead them both down the hallway towards the city.

  
  


“think you’ll get in trouble?” Sans asked as he followed along.

  
  


“Nah.”

 


	11. Mother's Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Papyrus isn’t sure how to celebrate Mother’s Day.

It hadn’t been long since Sans and Papyrus started going to school but both of them were adjusting well. With his little brother so young, Sans would often sit and wait outside of his classroom after the bell rang for the day, wanting to be sure he didn’t get lost. He was still just a babybones, after all.

  
  


Soon enough, Papyrus walked from the classroom and smiled at his brother, running for him and taking his hand so they could walk home.

  
  


“have a good day today?” Sans asked as he lead Papyrus off the school grounds.

  
  


“YEAH, BUT…” He began, his older brother looking down at him. It wasn’t usual Papyrus had an off day.

  
  


“MY TEACHER SAID IT’S MOTHER’S DAY SOON AND WE SHOULD THINK ABOUT MAKING SOMETHING NICE FOR OUR MOMS.” He looked up at Sans, “DO WE HAVE A MOM? IS DAD MOM TOO?”

  
  


Sans made a face. “uhh… no we don’t have a mom. i guess you could say ‘dings is our mom too.” That was weird to think about, but he guessed it was sort of true.

  
  


“SO SHOULD I MAKE SOMETHING FOR HIM? MY TEACHER SAID I SHOULD JUST THINK OF SOMEONE WHO’S LIKE A MOM, BUT I CAN’T THINK OF ANYONE.”

  
  


“why not just make it for ‘dings anyway?” Sans said with a shrug.

  
  


“HM… I GUESS.” Papyrus said, although didn’t sound too convinced.

  
  


They walked the rest of the way home talking about happier subjects, both of them arriving before Gaster had gotten back from work. The two went about their usual routine, Sans helping Papyrus with a little bit of his homework before he ended up taking a nap on the couch while his little brother watched TV in front of him. It wasn’t much longer that their father came home.

  
  


“HI DAD!” Papyrus cheered, pushing himself up and running to hug him. It was still new to him to be gone all day and he wasn’t quite used to it, so any time they were apart felt much longer than it actually was.

  
  


“Hey kiddo.” Gaster said, rubbing Papyrus’ skull with his boney hand. “School still okay for you?” He asked, not having very high hopes for the public education system.

  
  


“YEAH. WELL…” The little skeleton began, thoughts of his conversation earlier with Sans coming back to him. He followed the doctor around as he tossed his clipboard aside and went to scrub his hands clean.

  
  


“MY TEACHER SAID MOTHER’S DAY HAPPENS SOON BUT I DIDN’T KNOW WHAT TO DO. I DON’T HAVE A MOM, DO I?” Papyrus said, tiny hands gripping the counter as he watched his father scrub at the joints between his phalanges.

  
  


“Nope.”

  
  


“THEY SAID TO THINK OF SOMEONE WHO’S CLOSE TO A MOM TO ME, BUT I DUNNO WHO.” He paused, then continued when his father didn’t have anything to add. “WE’RE GOING TO MAKE CARDS.”

  
  


“Well didn’t you tell her that you just had a dad?”

  
  


“YEAH, THAT’S WHEN SHE SAID JUST THINK OF SOMEONE ELSE.”

  
  


Gaster looked down at him, “But you don’t know anyone else.”

  
  


“YEAH…” The little skeleton frowned and suddenly looked sad.

  
  


The doctor watched him and suddenly felt guilty for something he hadn’t before; creating them artificially. Had it been wrong to make Papyrus?  …  No. No, of course not. That was stupid to think. You didn’t need two biological parents to function. If anything his boys were better!

  
  


“Look, kiddo.” Gaster said as he went about drying his hands. “Nothing is wrong with only having one parent; and nothing is wrong with being made the way you two were. She didn’t make you feel bad about being different did she?” He said, suddenly looking angry.

  
  


“... NO, NOT REALLY.” Papyrus shook his head.

  
  


“Good.” The doctor set his towel down roughly. “I don’t want either of you to think that. There’s nothing wrong with it.”

  
  


Before Papyrus could say anything Sans’ spoke up from the couch, his voice groggy from his nap. “hey, what about farfig?”

  
  


“Farfig?” Gaster asked, confused.

  
  


“YEAH!” Papyrus shouted suddenly, having not thought of that. The dragon monster had always been so kind to them, it would make sense for her to get a Mother’s Day card.

  
  


“farfig is that dragon that comes by sometimes.” Sans said, although was surprised Gaster didn’t remember her.

  
  


“Oh, right, that woman. Hey, do what you want to.” He shrugged and pat Papyrus on the head as he walked passed.

  
  


\--

  
  


A few days later the holiday came around. Papyrus made a messy card for Farfig covered in glitter and bits of macaroni. Once home he ran down the halls of the lab looking for her, eager to give her the card he had made. Eventually he rounded a corner and nearly bumped into her and another assistant.

  
  


“Woah champ, hold up.” The monster beside her said, tall and demonic-looking. He caught Papyrus before he could crash into his legs.

  
  


“SORRY!” Papyrus fumbled before noticing Farfig stood beside him. He suddenly felt himself blush a little before thrusting the glittery card up at her. “I MADE YOU A CARD!”

  
  


“For me?” The dragon smiled, shifting the clipboard in her hands to take the card. It was cut out of red and pink construction paper, a messy heart glued to the front and lined with pasta and glitter. She opened it, the inside reading ‘HAPY MOM DAY’ in his horrible handwriting, then his name in large letters at the bottom. A large smile spread across Farfig’s muzzle. “Oh Papyrus, this is so sweet!”

  
  


Papyrus’ blush grew bigger, his grin growing just as much as her’s. The dragon reached down, lifting the little boy up to hug him tight and then set him down again. “DO YOU LIKE IT?” He asked, stars in his eye sockets.

  
  


“Of course, I love it. I’m going to put this on my desk and keep it forever.” Farfig said, gently placing the card on her clipboard.

  
  


Papyrus beamed at her. “REALLY?”

  
  


“Really.” The dragon smiled and nodded.

  
  


The tiny skeleton could barely contain himself, wiggling in his spot before he turned to leave. Sans would get worried if he was out for too long by himself. “BYE FARFIG! HAPPY MOM DAY!” He shouted before running off down the hall.

  
  


Farfig waved to him and smiled, looking back down at the crudely made card on her clipboard.

 


	12. Parent-Teacher Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gaster is forced to go to a parent-teacher night.

After a long day of school both of the boys pushed open the door to their house, their father already home and scribbling away at notes in front of him at his desk.

  
  


“Hey, how was school?” He asked, but neither of them said anything as Sans walked over and handed him a piece of paper. Gaster raised a brow and took it, the top reading ‘Parent-Teacher Night’ in bold letters. Even Papyrus looked a little worried as he stood behind his brother, nearly just as tall.

  
  


“Oh.”

  
  


“yeah.” Sans commented dryly.

  
  


“MAYBE IT WON’T BE SO BAD?” Papyrus said, hopeful. Even he was having trouble thinking this was going to go well though.

  
  


Gaster sighed and let his head roll around the back of his chair before thrusting the paper back at his son. “Tell them I died.”

  
  


“what? no.” Sans shoved the paper back at him, frowning as much as he was capable of.

  
  


Gaster made fake crying noises and whined before looking at the paper in his hand again. After a moment he sighed heavily and hung his head. “Fine. But we’re all aware this is going to end horribly, right?” He looked at his boys, who both nodded.

  
  


“Alright. Good. I mean not good but… good.”

  
  


\--

  
  


Soon enough the dreaded night rolled around, the school filled with parents and their children. Everyone stood in the halls outside the classrooms where their kids were taught mingling and chatting amongst one another while they waited for their name to be called. Sans’ teacher was first, Gaster standing off to the side with the boys while they waited. The doctor rapidly clicked the end of one of his pens, his other hand deep in his coat pocket signing to itself nervously.

  
  


“jeeze ‘dings, calm down.” Sans mumbled, watching as his creator twitched and messed about anxiously.

  
  


“Easier said than done. I have my reasons for hating coming out here.” He mumbled, just as one of the other monsters began to approach him. “Here comes one of them.”

  
  


“Dr Gaster?” The monster asked with a smile. “I never thought I’d see you out of your lab!” She chuckled and the doctor’s eye sockets narrowed.

  
  


“Yes. They all say that.”

  
  


“Are these your boys? I hear Sans is quite the genius.” She said, looking down at the two younger skeletons.

  
  


“Of course he is.” Gaster said, as though it was ridiculous to think otherwise.

  
  


“So… if you don’t mind me asking…” The woman began, Gaster already thinking ‘oh boy here we go’ to himself, “... Is there a mother in the picture?”

  
  


“No.” He said abruptly.

  
  


“... Oh. I’m sorry to he-”

  
  


“There was never a mother. I made them.”

  
  


Sans already had a palm to his face.

  
  


“You… made them?” The monster asked, skeptical.

  
  


Gaster held up one hand, the circle missing from it evident. “Sans.” He then held up the other. “Papyrus. I made them.”

  
  


“O-oh…” The woman straightened up and forced a smile. “I see. Well, it was nice to finally meet you.” She said before awkwardly walking back to the other group of women she had been standing with.

  
  


Gaster watched her leave before making a few rude gestures with his hands that only him and his sons could understand.

  
  


“well. it was nice having friends while it lasted.” Sans mumbled, knowing that soon everyone in his class would know he was made ‘artificially’.

  
  


“Oh come on.” The doctor frowned and looked down at him. “Like that’s anything to be ashamed of.

  
  


“it’s plenty to be ashamed of.” Sans said, the whites of his eyes vanishing. Gaster looked down at him angry at first, but that soon melted away and was replaced with guilt. He frowned and looked ahead, the two of them awkwardly avoiding eye contact.

  
  


Papyrus looked between them and frowned. A hand then reached up and took his father's as he smiled. “I’M NOT ASHAMED.”

  
  


Gaster managed a little smile and gave Papyrus’ hand a squeeze.

  
  


It wasn’t much longer that Sans’ name was called, Papyrus waiting outside while the other two headed in to talk. There was little negative the teacher had to say about Sans. He was smart, studious, and did well interacting with his fellow classmates. Then came the time where Sans was called out, leaving Gaster and the teacher to discuss him alone.

  
  


“The only problem with Sans is that he tends to… intimidate the other students.” The teacher said, leaning slightly over the desk. Gaster said nothing, his arms crossed and his foot bouncing nervously.

  
  


“We haven’t banned the use of magic in school because so few of our students can use it, but Sans tends to use it for rather… mundane things. It scares the other children sometimes.”

  
  


“What, like grabbing a pen or playing jokes with it?” Gaster asked with a shrug. “So?”

  
  


“Yes, well, it frightens some of the other students.” The man behind the desk repeated firmly. “We all remember what happened when a certain monster was bullied, don’t we?”

  
  


“Of course.” Gaster said, sitting up straight. He put his hands on his knees and frowned. “If you’re asking me to tell him to stop it, I won’t. It’s part of who he is. Besides-” The doctor leaned back into his chair and folded his arms. “-that kid shouldn’t have been picking on Pap. He got what was coming to him. I mean, really, who picks on Papyrus.” He threw his hands up, as though the mere idea was absurd.

  
  


The teacher sighed through his nose and opened his mouth to say something, but decided it wasn’t worth the hassle and changed what he was going to say.  “ Well, that’s really the only issue with Sans. Have a good night, Dr. Gaster.”

  
  


The scientist nodded and stood up, stepping out into the hallway before beginning to walk down the corridor towards Papyrus’ classroom. His sons fell in line beside him, Sans looking up at him curiously.

  
  


“so what did he have to say?”

  
  


“He said you’re a badass.”

  
  


Sans narrowed his eye sockets, “what? no he didn’t.”

  
  


“He wanted me to tell you to stop using your magic for pranks and things like that. I told him no.”

  
  


“why? i can stop.” Sans said, not thinking it a very big deal.

  
  


“No. Like I said before, it’s nothing to be ashamed of.” He looked down at Sans sternly. “It’s a part of who you are, whether…” Gaster trailed off and looked away down the hall again, his hands shoving into the pockets of his coat. “... whether you like it or not.”

  
  


Sans frowned, wanting to be angry with him, but… he couldn’t manage it. Most of the time Gaster hid his darker emotions quite well, but not this time. He looked guilty just long enough for Sans to notice before quickly covering it up again as they stopped near Papyrus’ classroom.

  
  


“This should be easy.” He smiled and looked down at Papyrus. “You can’t do anything wrong.”

  
  


Papyrus grinned up at him, “NYEH-HEH-HEH! I’M JUST THAT GREAT!”

  
  


“you sure are.” Sans smirked, the three of them waiting outside the classroom for only a few moments before being called inside.

  
  


The teacher was impressed with Papyrus’ math and problem-solving skills, but his reading comprehension and spelling was a bit lacking. Gaster was quick to jump in to defend him, not making excuses but explaining that it might be because he wasn’t too great at it either. Sans was about the only one in the house that could help with that sort of thing.

  
  


Once Papyrus left the two discussed him at length, mostly about his apparent unwavering kindness. Neither of them thought it was a problem per se, but they did both agree that it could possibly get him into a few difficult situations. The teacher had noticed a few of the children taking advantage of it now that he was getting older, but there was really little either of them could do about it. Both of them had tried explaining it to him at one point or another, but that never seemed to shake his spirit that everyone did things for a reason, even if it wasn’t particularly nice.

  
  


After awhile the two finished, Gaster stepping out into the hallway to meet his boys sitting on a bench just outside the door. “Alright kids, I guess that’s it. Didn’t turn out too bad after all, did it?” He smiled, a little proud of himself. That soon faded as he looked down to see Papyrus pouting.

  
  


“Hey woah what’s this.” He gestured to the smaller skeleton and then looked at Sans.

  
  


Sans inhaled deeply, wondering whether he should say anything or not, but eventually decided it would be worth it if it got Papyrus happy again. He gestured over to a group of monsters, one of them being the woman they had talked to earlier. “her kid is pap’s friend. she yanked him away and has been talking about us like we can’t hear.” He glared over at them, his pupils vanishing.

  
  


Gaster turned and looked at the group, one monster in particular glancing at him and then hushing the others.

  
  


“Okay.” He said sharply before turning and quickly closing the distance between himself and the group of parents talking about them. Any hint of his social anxiety seemed to go flying out the window.

  
  


“So what is it we’re talking about here?” Gaster asked, shoving his hands into the pockets of his lab coat roughly and rocking on his heels. A few of the monsters shied away, embarrassed to be caught in the act. The monster he had originally talked to tried to laugh it off.

  
  


“Oh nothing! We were just-”

  
  


“You were just dragging your kid away from my kid because you think he’s weird, right?” The doctor said, cutting her off. He pointed to the young monster beside her, then over to Papyrus. “Yeah. Nice thing to teach your kid. Judge everyone different from you, right? Don’t associate with them.” His hands started to gesture wildly in anger.

  
  


“You know that sounds pretty familiar to me, say, oh…” He shrugged, “... the surface? Y’know, being killed because we were different and the humans were scared of us?” Gaster paused, but not long enough to give the woman a chance to get a word in edgewise. “Yeah. We need more of that, right?” He narrowed his eye sockets, looming over her with an air of intimidation he usually only reserved for the monsters working under him.

  
  


“ Listen-” Gaster said, a smile spreading across his face as he pointed at her with a boney finger. “-if I hear you spreading that kind of shit around this school, and my boy suffers from it, you’ll regret it.” He laughed a little and his smile fell instantly, the dots of his eyes vanishing. “And I mean  ** r e a l l y  r e g r e t  i t. ** ”  He said, his voice becoming hollow and distorted, nothing like what it usually sounded like.

  
  


He stood there in silence, waiting and watching as the monsters began to shy away. The woman he had been talking to in particular eventually had to force her gaze to something else before quickly tugging her child in the opposite direction. Gaster didn’t move until they were all dispersed.

  
  


The doctor turned and walked back to where Sans and Papyrus were sitting, the whites of his eyes slowly returning. They slipped off the bench, Papyrus taking his father’s hand as they began to walk out of the building.

  
  


“HOW DID YOU DO THAT?” Papyrus asked, looking up at him.

  
  


“Do what?”

  
  


“SOUND ALL SPOOKY.”

  
  


“Oh.” Gaster laughed and looked down at him. “That’s a skeleton thing. You can do it too.”

  
  


“COOL!”

  
  


Sans chuckled, “why don’t you leave being scary to ‘dings, pap? i don’t think you’ve got it in you to be spooky.”

  
  


“ You’re much too nice for that.” Gaster agreed, “Now let’s go get some Nice Cream. I need to wash the taste of this whole night out of my mouth.”

 


	13. Gaster Ruins Christmas

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gaster tells Sans and Papyrus how he ruined Christmas.

It was a lovely Giftmas morning as the three skeletons sat around their living room, Papyrus playing with his new toys and Sans thumbing through more of the books he got. Gaster sat beside them, happily drinking coffee from his new '#1 DAD' mug. The morning was beginning to wind down, Papyrus growing tired of playing with his toys.

 

“DAD?”

 

“Hm?” Gaster mumbled, the white dots of his eyes trained on the TV as a rerun of some childrens program played.

 

“YOU REMEMBER WHEN YOU SAID YOU RUINED CHRISTMAS AND THAT'S WHY SANTA WON'T BRING YOU ANYTHING?”

 

This finally caught the doctor's attention, his eyes peeling away from the childish display on the screen in front of him in order to look down at Papyrus sat on the rug at his feet. “Yeah?”

 

“WHAT HAPPENED?”

 

“Uh.”

 

“yeah dings.” Sans said with a smirk as he turned and looked at his creator. “what happened?”

 

Gaster narrowed his eyes, knowing full well that Sans was only doing this because he wanted to hear what kind of nonsense could be made up on the spot. Little did they know that the nonsense he was about to spill had at least some grounding in truth.

 

“Well...” The doctor began as he leaned back into the lumpy, patchwork sofa. “This was many, many years ago before Santa could figure out how to work his magic and get through the barrier to deliver his presents to all the good little monster girls and boys, so back then the King had to fill in for him.”

 

“THE KING WAS SANTA?” Papyrus asked, sounding astounded. Sans gave his father a warning glance, but it was quickly quieted as his maker returned it with a confident smirk.

 

“He was at that time, yeah. You can't just tell a bunch of growing kids that Santa can't come, right? How would you feel knowing that?”

 

“I'D FEEL HORRIBLE.” Papyrus pouted at the mere thought.

 

“Exactly.” Gaster said before taking a drink from his new cup and continuing.

 

“So the King was playing the role of Santa for now. Back then there weren't too many monster children, so he would go around nearly door to door in a costume to try and cheer them up. This was also before I finished the core, so things were pretty dark and glum. We used the glowing crystals and plants to light everything mostly, but they only do so much.”

 

“Meanwhile I was working on what would be the core, but... well.” Gaster chuckled and rubbed the back of his skull. “Back then I was only one monster with maybe a tiny handful of assistants. It was pretty rough going. Nevertheless I was determined to get it working. We needed light if we were going to be able to do much of anything.”

 

“While everyone else was celebrating I was working away. Santa and I hadn't exactly been on very good terms before this, mind you.” Gaster smirked, “So I wasn't expecting any presents. I'm sure I've been on naughty lists for years.”

 

“So, well, to put things rather short and keep this from getting complicated, I... uh, kinda blew up a smaller version of the core. A prototype.”

 

Sans made a face, knowing just how massive and powerful the core was. Even a prototype was probably quite the terrible thing to explode. Gaster caught his son's look and laughed nervously. “Yeeeeah...”

 

“I didn't mean to blow it up, something went wrong. I think it had to do with the containment chamber. But yeah, it blew up.” He took another drink from his mug and Papyrus leaned forward, enamored with the story so far.

 

“WHAT HAPPENED?”

 

“Well it sent out a pretty nasty shock-wave, knocked over a few of the less steady houses, broke some of my ribs and an arm. Then the shock-wave caused a ripple in the magma which nearly burnt a few houses down.” Gaster laughed nervously again.

 

“No one was killed, but there were a few injuries. The King had to drop the Santa act pretty quick to help everyone out, along with the Queen. Needless to say the kids of that generation learned that not only is Santa just Asgore in a suit, but also that they lived really close to a magma chamber currently being experimented on by someone who had no idea what they were doing at the time.”

 

“THAT'S HORRIBLE!”

 

“Yeah...” The doctor chuckle despite everything. “Then there's also the time I barged in when he was dressed as Santa for his two kids and I called him King Asgore. That didn't go well. The Queen was pretty angry too.”

 

He hid the smirk on his face with his mug.

 

“THAT'S WHY SANTA HAS YOU ON HIS NAUGHTY LIST?”

 

“I'm sure those at least contributed to the reason, yes.” He laughed.

 

“WELL...” Papyrus said, standing up before he climbed onto the sofa and sat between his brother and father. “YOU'RE NOT ON MY NAUGHTY LIST.” He beamed up at Gaster, who smiled back after a moment.

 

A boney hand reached up to roughly rub at the crown of his son's skull. “Thanks kiddo.”

 


	14. Family

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sans and Gaster have to explain to Papyrus how he was made.

Sans had thought that getting Papyrus involved in public school was a good thing, and it was! To a point, anyway. This opened him up to a whole new world, new experiences, new friends, and… some rather complicated questions.

  
  


He knew they had a peculiar upbringing. It was far from normal living in the CORE’s facility in some abandoned wing that attached itself to the busier sections of the lab through dark, winding corridors. He knew that it wasn’t really all that common to have only a single parent, let alone have that single parent _make you_ rather than the usual way monsters had children.

  
  


Papyrus though, he hadn’t had any idea that their life was strange before he started school.

  
  


It wasn’t until they got on the subjects of personal life that the little skeleton wasn’t quite sure what to tell his classmates. He always told the truth when outright asked, but it consistently meant he got strange looks or curious responses.

  
  


‘ _What do you mean you don’t have a mom?’_

  
  


‘ _You live in a lab? That’s weird.’_

  
  


‘ _So it’s just your dad and your brother? No one else? No one at all?’_

  
  


These were all questions that Papyrus hadn’t expected. What was wrong with only having one parent? What was wrong living inside a lab? Was he supposed to have a big family like some monsters seemed to?

  
  


Eventually all of his questions and concerns came to a head. Sans was waiting outside his classroom just as he always did, ready to lead his tiny brother hand-in-hand back to the facility they called home.

  
  


It only took a second for Sans to know something was wrong. Papyrus walked over to his brother rather than ran. He didn’t jump to hug him and instantly start talking about his day and all the amazing things they learned or talked about.

  
  


He was quiet. Papyrus was rarely quiet.

  
  


Sans tried to start the conversation first for once, asking about his brother’s day or what he had learned, but only got curt answers in response;  ‘ it was okay’ and ‘uh-huh’.

  
  


Unacceptable.

  
  


The older brother went quiet, waiting until they had walked off school grounds and the crowds began to thin to attempt starting up a conversation for a second time.

  
  


“so… not a very good day today, bro?” Sans asked as he looked down at Papyrus. He was so small but lanky, the clothing made for your average monsters hanging off his bones. Papyrus didn’t say anything at first, instead just sort of mumbling an affirmative and shifting his backpack on his shoulders a little. Sans gave his hand a squeeze.

  
  


“hey.” He began again, pace slowing and waiting for Papyrus to match it. Finally he met his gaze, dark eye sockets looking up at him with a sadness that they didn’t usually hold. Despite the lack of any light in his eyes like his father or older brother, somehow he was always so much more expressive.

  
  


“what’s wrong?” His older brother pried for a second time. He watched as Papyrus pouted and then looked away at the sidewalk.

  
  


“IS OUR FAMILY WEIRD?”

  
  


Ah crap.

  
  


Sans had always sort of known this day would come, the day he would have to explain to Papyrus that… yeah. Yeah their family was pretty weird.

  
  


“uh…” He mumbled, suddenly finding himself without words. Despite knowing this day had been fast approaching he had never really thought about how to lead the conversation when it finally did happen. Gotta love being a lazy procrastinator.

  
  


“i... “ Sans began, but changed what he was going to say after a moment and decided to keep walking towards the CORE. Walking would help him think. “what makes you think that, pap?” He eventually asked.

  
  


“A LOT OF THE OTHER KIDS HAVE A MOM AND A DAD. WHENEVER I SAY I JUST HAVE A DAD THEY ACT LIKE THAT ISN’T NORMAL. IS IT NOT NORMAL TO JUST HAVE A DAD?” Papyrus asked, looking up at his big brother as they walked. Surely Sans would know the answer to this question. Sans knew everything.

  
  


“only having one parent is fine.” The taller skeleton said, “sure, most of the time you’re gonna have a mom and a dad, but sometimes you don’t. that’s okay.”

  
  


“IF IT’S OKAY THEN WHY DOES EVERYONE SAY IT’S WEIRD?”

  
  


Sans fought back a wince. He was getting deeper than he really wanted to be explaining to a babybones about this subject. Maybe he should let ‘Dings handle this.

  
  


… No. No that was a terrible idea.

  
  


“i dunno.” Sans shrugged, “but it isn’t. so i wouldn’t worry about it.”

  
  


Papyrus frowned and didn’t look very convinced. Sans tried to look the other way, hoping maybe that eventually his little brother would accept it. He would have no such luck, his baby brother moving onto another question.

  
  


“THEY SAY IT ISN’T NORMAL TO LIVE IN A LAB EITHER.”

  
  


Ah, well at least this was an easy one to diffuse.

  
  


“not many kids have the royal scientist as their… dad.” He said, the word ‘dad’ needing to be a little forced out between his teeth. He was still uncomfortable with thinking of his creator in such a way, but didn’t want to push that belief onto Papyrus. Sans wanted him to have as normal as a childhood as possible, even if right now he was beginning to think anything but.

  
  


“OH. I GUESS THAT’S TRUE.” Papyrus smiled a little, that question easily answered. Sans breathed a sigh of relief through his teeth and let his shoulders relax a little, but that small moment of peace was broken as soon as his little brother returned to his first question. Apparently skirting around it like he had wasn’t quite enough to satisfy.

  
  


“SO WHAT HAPPENED TO OUR MOM?”

  
  


The question caught Sans pretty off-guard. He found himself tripping over some unseen crack in the pavement as they neared the back entrance to the lab.

  
  


“huh?” He asked again, the question so startling that he had forgotten it as soon as it had been said.

  
  


“WHAT HAPPENED TO OUR MOM?” Papyrus repeated, “EVERYONE SAYS YOU HAVE TO HAVE A MOM AND A DAD. OR TWO PARENTS TO MAKE ANOTHER MONSTER. SO…” He trailed off and looked up at his brother curiously. “WE MUST HAVE HAD A MOM, RIGHT? OR… ANOTHER DAD?”

  
  


This… yeah. This he couldn’t answer.

  
  


Sans looked down at his little brother with discomfort, his hand still holding onto Pap’s tightly. “uh… you’re gonna have to ask ‘dings about that, okay?”

  
  


Papyrus blinked, not quite understanding why his brother couldn’t answer. “WHY?”

  
  


“‘cause…” Sans began, letting go of his brother’s hand to dig into one of the pockets of his backpack and fetch the badge to swipe in order to unlock the door. He did so to buy himself some time before he had to answer, the door buzzing before unlocking and allowing them inside. Sans held it open for his little brother before finishing his sentence. “that’s just something _he's_ gotta talk about with you, okay?”

  
  


“MMM…” Papyrus frowned a little, thinking this was just some excuse to pass the conversation off to someone else. “ALRIGHT.”

  
  


It wasn’t like he could _make_ his brother answer it after all.

  
  


The two walked along the corridors. They passed quite a few monsters on their way home, the lab slowly becoming darker and darker, the hallways becoming more unused as they drew closer to the quieter, abandoned sections; the sections that Gaster had carved out for himself and called home.

  
  


Sans was the one to open the door first this time around, Papyrus lingering behind him. Gaster’s head raised from his work, the room still just as much of a mess as they had left it; a mix of ‘lived in by three messy children’ and ‘lab used by a scientist with too many dumb ideas’.

  
  


“Hey kids. How was school?” He asked, only giving both of them a passing glance before going right back to scribbling away.

  
  


“fine.” Sans said, dumping his things to the side before making right for the couch. He always needed a nap after school. Still, this time he would try and stay awake to see just how ‘Dings was going to handle the situation that was thrown at him in 3…

  
  


2…

  
  


1…

  
  


“DAD?” Papyrus asked, setting his bag down much more deliberately than his brother.

  
  


“Yeah kiddo?”

  
  


“WHAT HAPPENED TO OUR MOM?”

  
  


The sound of Gaster’s pencil tip snapping was answer enough. His head raised, eye sockets as wide as they could go even if one was in a constant droop. “What?”

  
  


“ OUR MOM.” Papyrus said as he approached his father, soon standing beside him. Gaster looked down into his sweet, curious little face with a mix of shock and ‘kill me’. The seconds ticked by in awkward silence, Papyrus looking more and more confused until the doctor apparently made a decision.

  
  


“You never had one.”

  
  


“OH…” Papyrus said, blinking and looking confused, “THEN… ANOTHER DAD?”

  
  


“Nope.” Gaster said as he reached for another pencil that still had a tip on it rather than sharpening the one he broke.

  
  


“BUT… EVERYONE SAYS YOU NEED TO HAVE TWO PARENTS.” Papyrus looked more and more confused by the second.

  
  


“Well they’re wrong.”

  
  


“BUT TWO PARENTS IS HOW YOU MAKE NEW MONSTERS, ISN’T IT?”

  
  


“Not always.”

  
  


“BUT…” The little skeleton trailed off, his tiny hands gripping at the edge of the table his father was working on. His teeth clacked against the edge before he let his chin rest on top. “I’M CONFUSED.”

  
  


Gaster had since found a new pencil, the tip hovering over his notes, but he soon realized he was unable to continue what he was working on. It was a crime to leave a child confused over something you knew the answer to and he wasn’t about to lie, to spin some dumb story about how he had fallen in love and their mother tragically died.

  
  


No. Fuck that.

  
  


He inhaled sharply through his nasal cavity and set his pencil down to look at Papyrus and give him the entirety of his attention. Sans was listening closely from his position on the couch, but so far he didn’t interrupt. He didn’t know if he even would. This wasn’t something he had really thought about to explain.

  
  


Sans was unsure if he wanted his little brother to know he was a clone. But at the same time… what was he going to tell him? He didn’t want to lie. He didn’t want his little brother’s life to be built on lies.

  
  


Neither did Gaster.

  
  


“Okay.” The doctor began, reaching down to lift Papyrus up and set him on his knee. He hoped this went better than it had done when he had told Sans everything. It probably would. Papyrus hadn’t been made to be a weapon, despite how capable he was of it.

  
  


“I’m not going to lie to you, Pap.” He began, “But we’re not what one would consider a ‘normal’ family.”

  
  


“WH-... WHY?” Papyrus asked, worry in his voice.

  
  


“Your classmates are right. Usually- USUALLY… a new monster is made when two monsters get together. But you and Sans are different.” Gaster said, putting particular emphasis on ‘usually’.

  
  


“HOW ARE WE DIFFERENT?”

  
  


“I made you.”

  
  


“MADE ME?” Papyrus still sounded confused, “BUT… ISN’T THAT NORMAL? TWO MONSTERS _MAKE_ ANOTHER.” He held up a finger on each hand and brought them together for emphasis. Papyrus didn’t know _how_ two monsters made another, but that it definitely did happen.

  
  


Gaster sighed, but it wasn’t directed at his son. He spun them around to face the table and grabbed a blank sheet of paper. “Usually when two monsters love one another they will make a new monster.” He said as he drew two really sloppy stick-figures side-by-side, followed by an upside-down heart around them. He then drew a smaller stick-figure off to the side. “But that isn’t what happened with you two. I made you a different way, by myself.”

  
  


He drew another figure and a tiny heart over its chest, then decided to add his scar and glasses on the face. “I took a piece of my soul and a piece of my body and put them together in a… very complicated process I’ll explain to you when you’re older.” He said, making two small ‘x’s over his soul on the paper, and then two more ‘x’s over his hands. “In the end this resulted in you and Sans.”

  
  


“... OH…” Papyrus said as he stared at the crude drawing. Unsure of what that ‘oh’ entailed, Gaster drew a very sloppy Papyrus and Sans on each side of his own stick figure. The one as Sans had his trademark grin while Papyrus was much smaller the the others. He sat there, Papyrus on his lap staring at the drawing and processing the information. Eventually he spoke up again.

  
  


“BUT… WHY DID YOU MAKE US LIKE THIS AND NOT THE OTHER WAY?” He asked, pointing from one drawing to another.

  
  


At that Gaster laughed, “You’ve seen how well I get along with other monsters, Papy. Do you really think I could tolerate someone that isn’t you two?”

  
  


“HM.” The little skeleton pondered this, eye sockets narrowing. He picked up the drawing to hold it close against his face. “NO. I GUESS NOT.”

  
  


Gaster smiled and rubbed his son’s head. “I’ll explain it in more detail when you’re older, but I don’t want you to ever be ashamed of being a little different. Being different isn’t always a bad thing.”

  
  


Papyrus mumbled again, sounding not too sure he understood it all but was apparently content enough with his father’s answer. He set the page back down and then grabbed one of the nearby pencils, starting to scribble on the drawing. He drew himself a cape and boots as his father watched, then added a few messy ‘z’s over Sans’ head, and finally angry eyebrows on his dad.

  
  


He grinned.

  
  


Gaster smiled, leaning his chin on top of Papyrus’ skull as he peered down at the work of art. “Pretty accurate I gotta say.”

 

 


	15. Substitute Teacher

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gaster is called in to be a substitute teacher.

While the two boys were at school Gaster made himself busy as he usually did. He walked down along the busy corridors of the lab away from the front desk where he got his mail. It was at the complete opposite end of the lab from the tiny section he had carved off for his home, but technically it was where he lived, so even personal mail came through there.

  
  


As he walked he flipped through the envelopes. Most were bills or letters about his projects from Asgore, or the monsters directly under him asking for updates or about costs. Those were usually tossed aside and never replied to. However this time one in particular caught his eye.

  
  


It was from the school.

  
  


He paused in the middle of the hall, a few of the assistants that noticed him stopping their conversations as they walked by or trying to ignore him as much as they could. Gaster opened up the letter and began to read.

  
  


…

  
  


… They wanted him to substitute. Who would ever think that was a good idea?

  
  


The hand holding the letter fell to his side and he stared ahead looking annoyed at the world in general. Everyone knew how horrible he was to be around, that was the whole point of him acting the way he did. If he acted like an asshole people left him alone.

  
  


Of course he _was_ an asshole, but still.

  
  


The doctor let out a low groan from between his teeth and continued on through the halls back to his room. When he finally arrived Sans and Papyrus were already back from school.

  
  


“DAD!” The youngest grinned and ran into his legs, spindly arms hugging around them.

  
  


“Hey kiddo.” He patted the top of Papyrus’ skull.

  
  


“MY TEACHER TOLD ME YOU’RE GOING TO BE SUBSTITUTING NEXT WEEK!” He said, beaming up at his father.

  
  


Gaster made a face. He had been planning to call them and tell him he couldn’t, or rather wouldn’t, do it. Now… well…

  
  


“Yeeeeaahhh…” The doctor mumbled.

  
  


“THAT’S SO COOL!”

  
  


“why did they ask you?” Sans said from the couch, having flicked his shoes off already and eager to get to his after-school nap.

  
  


Gaster just shrugged, “Your guess is as good as mine.”

  
  


\--

  
  


The following week Gaster showed up to school an hour earlier than his boys and went through the orientation. He would be teaching a science class for some of the younger monsters, which explained a bit on why he was teaching it, but still was pretty perplexed why they would ask him over one of his assistants or… well, anyone else, actually.

  
  


Whether or not he had two sons now didn’t make him a good teacher or even a good father. He was showed the lesson plan and what he was expected to do; it was all painfully easy. Eventually he was left to his own devices sitting at the desk waiting as the children eventually started to file in.

  
  


At least he wasn’t as nervous around kids now than he was with adults. Sans and Papyrus had helped with that part at least.

  
  


He looked back at the lesson plan, which basically amounted to roll-call, some video, and then a worksheet. How boring.

  
  


As the bell chimed Gaster grabbed the clipboard with all the student’s names on it and walked around to lean against the front of the desk.

  
  


“Alright, roll-call.” He began, but as none of the children got quiet enough for him to begin he narrowed his eye sockets.

  
  


“Hey!” He suddenly yelled, shocking everyone into silence. The doctor smiled, “Much better.”

 

He wasn’t about to let a bunch of brats rule over him just because he was a substitute.

  
  


After he went through roll-call he looked over the lesson plan again and frowned at just how boring it was. “Okay so I’m supposed to let you watch a video and do some stupid worksheet.” He said, sounding as enthusiastic as his students looked at the idea of being in school right now. “But that’s boring. I’m going to teach you something fun.”

  
  


He crumpled the lesson plan up and tossed it into the waste bin beside his desk. The students in front of him murmured amongst themselves. “How much magic have they taught you kids?” Gaster asked, arms folding over his chest.

  
  


A mix of ‘none’, ‘nothing’, and ‘I dunno’s echoed out from the children. Gaster grumbled and rubbed his skull. Why weren’t they teaching kids magic anymore? It was right up there with science on the main things every kid should learn.

  
  


“Okay.” He began, “Today I’m gonna teach how to make something cool with a few materials and a little magic. Now all of you stay right here while I get a few things.” He pointed at the floor before moving and walking out of the classroom.

  
  


The children looked at one another and started to talk loudly amongst themselves now that Gaster was gone. He didn’t leave long though, returning around 15 or so minutes later with an armful of pipes, glue, and a bag of popatoes. This only caused them to talk even louder, wondering what in the world this was going to end up like.

  
  


“Alright.” The doctor dumped the supplies on the desk haphazardly. “The best thing about science is combining it with magic. We’re gonna make a popato cannon.”

  
  


The noises of excitement only grew louder.

  
  


“Yes, yes.” He groaned, waving his hands a bit to get everyone to calm down and shut up. Thankfully it didn’t seem like he would have to yell for a second time. “All you need is a bit of pipe, some glue to slap it all together, popatoes, and magic.”

  
  


The classroom went silent as he began to explain how exactly to make it. He glued the few pieces of pipe together before getting onto the magic part of things. While the glue dried he began to teach the class how to infuse items with magic. You had to have magical ability at the start to do so, but all monsters and humans were capable of at least some levels of magic. This was why all their food was magical, most monsters used it without even having to think about it for daily tasks.

  
  


Infusing something with a particular purpose, however, was different. There was a lot of science behind it, especially how the runes were drawn on the object itself. It had to be very, very specific for it all to work and have a good amount of magical effort put into it. The wielder also had to be strong enough to influence the runes in order for it to do what it was meant to.

  
  


Gaster couldn’t believe this wasn’t taught in schools. What the hell were these kids learning?

  
  


With the explanation out of the way he began to write the runes along the length of pipe, explaining what each one did as he went along. Once that was finished he grabbed the cannon and bag of popatoes.

  
  


“Okay I’m sure if one of the other teachers catches us going outside I’m going to be banned from teaching ever again, so be quiet.” The doctor warned, then urged everyone to get up and follow him outside. They were eager to see where this would go and Gaster knew it would probably get him banned from teaching.

  
  


Maybe that was the whole point.

  
  


He lead the reasonably quiet group of children down the hallways and outside before setting up the canon. “Now can any of you use any sort of magic at all?” Gaster asked the group, but all of them shook their heads. That was pretty understandable, most young kids couldn’t use much magic even if they were taught.

  
  


“Ah well, you’ll just have to watch me do it then.” The doctor shrugged and ripped open the bag of popatoes before loading one down the barrel. “You have to rest your hand on this inscription in particular before activating your magic.” He explained, doing just that before pointing the cannon away from the school.

  
  


Gaster’s eyes flared purple before the runes on the cannon lit up, the popato firing out from the end with a loud ‘THWOMP’. Thrilled cries of ‘WOW!’, ‘WOAH!’ and ‘COOL!’ followed. He found a grin spread across his face despite everything.

  
  


“Cool, huh?” He asked the students, who cheered behind him. He loaded another, spending the rest of the period firing the popatoes from the cannon and answering any questions the children had about magic.

  
  


Their fun was only cut short once the principal heard them yelling as she walked by the door outside. Her head peeked out just in time to watch a popatoe go flying.  “ Doctor!” She yelled sternly, “What on earth are you doing out here?”

  
  


Gaster turned to face her. “What’s it look like? I’m teaching science.”

  
  


“This looks far from science.”

  
  


“It isn’t.” He said plainly while loading another popatoe into the cannon, completely disregarding her concern.

  
  


“Weren’t you supposed to be showing a video and doing a worksheet?”

  
  


“Yep.” He grinned and turned to fire another, the children torn between cheering him on or staying quiet to avoid the principal’s wrath. “But this is a lot more engaging. How do you expect kids to get interested in science if you just sit them in front of a TV?”

  
  


The principal huffed and looked down at the children gathered around. “Everyone go inside right now. Back to your classroom.”

  
  


The children groaned and mumbled, most of them doing what she asked with little resistance. Once all of them were back inside her attention returned to the doctor. “You can go home, Doctor.”

  
  


Before he could reply the door closed.

  
  


Gaster stood there, staring at the closed door and frowning. He looked down at the bag of popatoes, a single one still sitting inside it. After some thought he stepped on it, mushing it into the bag before loading it down the barrel of the cannon. It would have to be mashed or it would do actual damage.

  
  


The doctor walked alongside the building until he found the window to the principal’s office. He recognized it after being taken in there after that kid had been dumb enough to shove Papyrus.

  
  


He aimed.

  
  


He fired.

  
  


The mashed popatoe splattered all over the principal’s window.

 

Gaster smiled, set down his cannon, and strolled his way home.

  
  


He was never asked to substitute again.

 


	16. Sick

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gaster has to leave the boys for a few days. Sans gets sick.

It wasn't often that Gaster had to leave the boys for any extended period of time. A lot of the time he brought his work back home, it wasn't like that was very hard when you lived in the same building as you worked. It wasn't like he was a social butterfly either; his two sons were about the only ones he talked with at any sort of length. Still, there were rare times when he was called away to some big-wig meeting that he had no desire to partake in.

 

This was one of those times.

 

Sans was old enough to be able to take care of himself and his little brother well enough. They knew how to order food or go to the store and he made sure plenty of gold was laying around for if they needed anything. They also had an emergency number to call, which would ring the front desk of the lab. The boys were acquainted with most of the monsters that worked its halls and everyone was mostly willing to give them a helping hand if they needed it. It was just their father they seemed to want to avoid.

 

After packing up his reports and saying his goodbyes, the two skeletons were left on their own for the next few days. Despite Papyrus being very well-behaved and Sans being too lazy to do anything too dangerous, they were still young children and would do what young children did unsupervised; got themselves into trouble.

 

The already messy abode became messier. They played around with their magic in the massive testing chamber Gaster had showed Sans once. They ordered tons of junk food and stayed up late watching scary movies. They both woke up the next morning with a belly ache and heads full of nightmares. Papyrus was, as always, the first to stir.

 

“SANS?” He asked as he sat up. Both of them had fallen asleep in the living room, the TV still running and a mess from candy and food they had bought the day before scattered all around them. He kicked some of it away before turning his head to look up at the couch from his position on the floor. “WE SHOULDN'T HAVE EATEN ALL THAT CANDY. I FEEL KINDA-”

 

Papyrus never finished his sentence, his own physical discomfort fading. His older brother was curled up wrapped in a blanket, shaking with old sick stuck to his chin and some of the couch, the magic long since dried to a strange blue and yellow mix.

 

It was a scene he had seen plenty of times, but never without his dad around to help.

 

Papyrus got to his feet and reached out, touching his brother's shoulder. “SANS?” He asked, the other skeleton slowly opening his eye sockets. Huge bags hung under each one and it looked like he hadn't been feeling well all night.  
  
Sans mumbled in reply, wanting to give his little brother some sort of comforting words or shake off how bad he was feeling for his sake, but simply couldn't manage it. All he could seem to do was shake and feel terrible. They had really overdone it with all the magic last night, but Papyrus had thought it all looked so cool and had wanted to learn some on his own.

 

The small skeleton looked between his brother and then the phone hanging on the wall and back again. “I'M... I'M GOING TO CALL THE FRONT DESK.” He patted Sans through the blankets before making his way to the phone, dragging a stool over to it and climbing up to reach it.

 

Many rooms inside the labs had these same phones, mostly used for calling other departments or the front desk. This one was no different, only it had been set up to call outside the labs as well. Papyrus hovered his finger over the button for the front desk but paused as a piece of paper stuck to a cork-board beside the phone, mostly covered in take-away menus, caught his eye.

 

Its curly, sweeping writing was a series of numbers followed by a familiar name; Farfig. She had given the boys her home number just in case one day and now it was finally going to be of use.  
  
Thoughts of calling the front desk vanished instantly and instead Papyrus yanked the piece of paper from the board and began to dial. He held the receiver to where his ear would be, twirling the curly cord of the phone around his finger anxiously as he waited.  
  
“Hello?” Came a sweet but curious voice from the other end.

 

“MS. FARFIG! IT'S PAPYRUS.”

 

He must have already sounded worried, because soon her tone was too. “Papyrus? Is everything alright?”

 

“DAD IS AWAY AT SOMETHING WITH THE KING BUT SANS IS SICK AND HE'S NEVER BEEN SICK WITHOUT DAD AROUND BEFORE AND I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO!” He fought off the urge to cry. It wasn't like he was scared, but this wasn't something he was prepared to take care of alone.

 

“Dr. Gaster is away and he left you two on your own?” She asked, sounding rather annoyed. Technically Sans probably was old enough to watch over the two of them, but... She tried to shake off her agitation for the sake of the skeleton brothers. “How sick is he?”

 

“UH...” Papyrus turned to look back at the form of his brother, still shaking. “HE'S SHAKING AND THREW UP A LITTLE.”

 

There was a small moment of tense silence on the other end. “Hold tight. I'll be right over.”  
  
“OKAY.”  
  
The two hung up and Papyrus slipped down off the stool again to walk over to his brother. He tried to remember the cause of this. It was usually after using his powers, right? Or bad dreams? Maybe he shouldn't have asked him to show him those cool skull laser things or how to make bones pop out of the ground...

 

–

 

Roughly 20 minutes later and Farfig was knocking on the door.

 

Papyrus got up and opened it, the stocky dragon monster walking through eagerly. “Where's Sans?” After he pointed at the couch she walked over to get a good look at him. He had puked again but had been given a bucket by Papyrus and was still shaking and mumbling, wanting to reassure them both that he was okay but was just too tired and ill to say anything.

 

“Oh my goodness. We need to get him to a doctor.” She put a hand on his forehead to feel the heat coming off him, mostly located around his left eye socket.

 

“DAD'S NEVER TAKEN HIM TO THE DOCTOR BEFORE.” Papyrus said, looking worried. Was his brother really that bad? Did Farfig see something he didn't?

 

“ _Never_?” The dragon sounded a mix of angry and confused. “You mentioned he's been sick before but Dr. Gaster has never taken him to a doctor?”

 

Papyrus shook his head, “NO. HE ALWAYS JUST MAKES HIM SOMETHING TO DRINK THAT SMELLS REALLY BAD AND THEN MONITORS HIM.”

 

Farfig looked furious. “Well we're going to take him to a doctor. Go fetch your shoes.” She started to gently pull Sans into a sitting position so she could carry him off. It was very strange for a monster to get sick and even stranger for them to be _sickly_. Surely something horrible must be wrong and Dr. Gaster was apparently more neglectful than she originally thought.  
  
“nn... wait...” Sans finally mumbled as he was sat up. The dragon stopped and looked at him oddly.

 

“it's... not that kinda... sick...” The skeleton looked up at Farfig with half-lidded eyes, massive black circles under each one and old sick still on his chin.

 

“I... don't follow...” Farfig blinked, confused.

 

“hn... uh...” Sans tried to speak but instead ended up making a grab for the bucket before retching into it, swirls of blue and yellow magic splashing into what he had made earlier. His eye sockets watered and he clung to the edge of the bucket while his head spun.  
  
“DAD SAYS IT'S WHEN HE STRESSES HIS MAGIC.” Papyrus said as he walked back over, holding his shoes in one hand after fetching them like Farfig had asked. “WE...” He pouted and messed with the shoestrings. “WE WERE GOOFING AROUND A LOT YESTERDAY AND I THINK I ASKED HIM TO SHOW ME TOO MUCH. NOW HE'S SICK. IT'S ALL MY FAULT.”  
  
“nno... it isn't, pap...” His older brother forced himself to mumble while he tried to blink the tears from his eyes.

 

Farfig looked even more confused now, her purple gaze moving back and forth between the two boys. She knew things were strange, anything was when the good doctor was involved, but this was... very strange. Stranger than she initially thought. She kept on a brave face and turned to Sans, gently taking his shoulder and trying to look him in the eyes. “Sans, I need to know, should I be taking you to a healer right now?”

 

Very slowly, Sans shook his head. The dragon frowned, apparently not liking that answer. “Are you  _ sure _ ?”

 

Sans nodded and finally Farfig relented before turning to Papyrus. “You said this happens often?”

 

The little skeleton nodded, “WHENEVER HE USES HIS MAGIC TOO MUCH OR HAS A BAD DREAM SOMETIMES IT HAPPENS.”

 

“And the doctor has never taken him to a healer?”

 

Papyrus shook his head, “NO.”

 

“it wouldn't help.” Sans finally managed to speak, his body wobbling a bit as he sat up. The dragon turned to look at him and took his shoulder to help steady his body. “it's... not that kinda sick. just... gotta rest.”

 

Slowly the very dim lights of his eyes looked up at Farfig. “can you... take care of pap... until dad gets back...?” As much as he hated asking for help, he definitely knew he couldn't manage it himself right now. He could barely sit up and who knew how long this bout would last.

 

The dragon sighed, “Of course. If you're both certain this doesn't require a doctor...” She didn't sound happy, but these two knew what was doing on more than she did. It really made her wonder why Sans got sick so often and why a healer wouldn't help. If only she was brave enough to ask the doctor.

 

“First let's get you into bed. Where do you sleep?”

 

Papyrus pointed over at their bedroom door. “IN THERE.”

 

Farfig nodded and reached down to lift the skeleton up. Despite being a teenager he was small and almost felt delicate. She carried him to his room and set him down on the bed, covering him with a blanket. Papyrus followed her in, setting the bucket down in it's usual place.

 

She then walked back out, fetching a wet cloth before stopping at Sans' side and wiping the sick from his teeth. He grumbled and tried to pull away. It was embarrassing to be cleaned up like a baby.

 

“No fussing.” She said sternly and finished soon enough before walking out to be rid of the towel. A moment later and she was back in with another clean one soaked in cold water. Farfig rest it gently over Sans' head before leaving yet again.

 

Papyrus watched her go back and forth fetching and cleaning. She gave Sans a glass of water and made him drink a little of it before going out into the living room and scrubbing up the magical spew from the couch, all the while Papyrus watched.

 

It was so weird watching someone clean and tend to their home and his brother. It was nothing he had seen before.

 

Farfig went back to Sans every now and then, eventually taking him some crackers to try and keep down before she started to make a decent lunch for Papyrus. Things were... odd with her in the house, but nice. Papyrus got a decent meal he didn't have to make himself. He helped her clean the place up and, eventually, she made him a nice dinner while making something plain for Sans to try to keep in his nonexistent stomach.

 

That night she left them to themselves, having to head back home so she could rest up with promise of coming back early the following morning.

 

And she did.

 

The following days were strangely nice. Sans got a little better each day and Farfig called off work to watch them. Papyrus got the first home cooked meals in possibly ever and they seemed to certainly help Sans too when he could finally eat them without puking them right back up a moment later. The house was cleaned, or as cleaned as she dared to make it without touching the doctor's notes, and the fridge was restocked. It was about time for her to leave when Gaster arrived.

 

He opened the door, smile on his face. “Heeeee....yyy...” The smile slowly faded as he looked on at Farfig grabbing her purse and the boys standing beside her. Then he looked at their new, cleaner surroundings.

 

“I guess that's my cue.” The dragon smiled nervously at the boys and gave Papyrus and Sans a hug. She then scooted passed Gaster as the white dots of his eyes watched her leave in complete confusion. The door clicked shut.

 

Gaster stared at it for a moment before looking back at his sons. “Why was she here?”

 

“uhhh...” Sans mumbled, glancing at Papyrus who completely ignored the question and flung his arms into his father's legs.

 

“WELCOME HOME DAD!”

 


	17. Nightmares

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sans gets a small glimpse into Gaster’s psyche.

Sans had never seen blood before, but somehow he had a feeling what it was. The day they had waited outside the King’s throne room for hours and hours after school made him suspicious, but his creator had been hesitant to talk about it at any length around Papyrus, which was understandable. During the evening when Papyrus wasn’t looking he had told Sans only enough to satisfy his curiosity; that a human had made their way to the King and the King had killed them.

  
  


Gaster had thrown off his blood-stained coat and wiped his hands as well as he could when carrying Papyrus home, but then once they got back he spent nearly an hour scrubbing at the joints and cracks between his phalanges and his words were even more sparse than usual. Sans knew he was keeping up as much of a strong facade as he could for Papyrus’ sake.

  
  


As it grew late the two boys were sent to bed and their home became quiet. It wasn’t unusual for Gaster to stay awake all throughout the night working or reading, he wasn’t a very good sleeper and didn’t seem to need all that much to power him throughout the next day.

  
  


It was, however, unusual for Gaster to leave the lab in the middle of the night.

  
  


Papyrus had fallen asleep after his bedtime story and Sans had just settled down to drift off too when he heard the door leading out to the hallway open and then click shut. His head turned and glanced at his bedroom door, wondering whether or not he should get up and see what had been going on with his creator, but hesitated.

  
  


No. It wasn’t his business. ‘Dings would be alright. He should just sleep.

  
  


His head laid down on the pillow and he closed his eyes, eager to just get to sleep and forget about the strange evening and the red smears he had seen across his father’s coat and covering his hands. Somehow they looked familiar, like he had viewed blood before when he had no way of ever seeing it, he didn’t even really know what a human looked like… right?

  
  


… No. No he didn’t. He couldn’t know. His nightmares had just been that, nightmares.

  
  


However, after tossing and turning for what felt like forever, Sans decided this would be a rare night where he just… couldn’t seem to sleep. The images in his head kept playing over and over and, as much as he hated to admit it, he was worried about ‘Dings.

  
  


Sans slipped out of his bed as quietly as he could and crept to his bedroom door. The lights of his eyes glanced back at Papyrus still sound asleep before he moved out of their bedroom to look around their home.

  
  


The lights were still on, they were almost always on, but there was no sign of the doctor. The little skeleton made his way to the door and opened it as slowly as he could to peek outside and into the dark hallway. He looked down one end, then the other, but there was nothing. No shadowy figure or faint glow of a pair of eyes.

  
  


He stepped out, closing the door quietly behind him. Sans considered calling out for him, but he didn’t want to risk waking Papyrus and shouting when everything was so still and quiet felt wrong. Instead he chose a direction and began to walk.

  
  


His footsteps were nearly silent. He had always been rather light on his feet, so the scuff of his slippers against the tiles was easy to miss even when everything was as quiet as it was now. He rounded a corner just in time to catch a figure out of the corner of his eye.

  
  


It was Gaster, but the sudden appearance of the black shadow leaning against the wall still made him jump. But not as much as it made the doctor.

  
  


Gaster flinched back and took one large step away from Sans, the glow of an attack forming into his hand. His eyes looked manic, the usual solid dots like scribbles dancing around in his eye sockets. The bone in his hand was splintered off at the end, tapering to a sharp point.

  
  


Sans instinctively put an arm up, eyes wide at the image before him. Deep down he knew Gaster wouldn’t hurt him in a way, but right now he looked terrifying. Still, fear was easily cloaked with humor when you were used to it.

  
  


“w-woah ‘dings.” The little skeleton mumbled, trying to push down the fright in his eyes.

  
  


The doctor blinked, his eyes growing more normal. His hand lowered and the attack vanished. The somewhat blank expression he had been wearing grew soft, then slightly angry. “Sans!” He shouted in a whisper, not wanting to be too loud just in case Papyrus was still awake. “What the hell are you doing out here? Go back to bed.”

  
  


“i couldn’t sleep.” Sans said, his arm lowering from in front of him.

  
  


Gaster didn’t look like he was buying it, “ _You_ couldn’t sleep?”

  
  


“yeah. i know. sounds hard to believe.” Sans grinned and shrugged a little awkwardly.

  
  


Gaster sighed and leaned his head back, rubbing his neck. “Well what do you want me to do? Read you a bedtime story? I’m shit at bedtime stories.”

  
  


“nah. i was just… wondering…” The skeleton looked down at Gaster’s feet, noticing a number of beer bottles stacked up by the wall. He could smell it on his creator’s breath too, but chose not to comment on that specifically. “... if you were ok.” His eyes looked back up.

  
  


Gaster looked a little shocked and his expression seemed conflicted on whether or not he wanted to be surprised, annoyed, or solemn. “I… yeah I’m fine.” He shook his head and started to shoo Sans back away down the hall. “Now go back to bed.”

  
  


Sans kept his feet firm. “was that blood?”

  
  


The doctor paused, “... Yeah. Yeah that was blood.”

  
  


“that’s like human dust, isn’t it?”

  
  


“... Sorta.”

  
  


An awkward silence fell between them. Sans looked down at the bottles again, then up at his creator’s face. Even in the dark he could see bags under Gaster’s eye sockets and a strangeness in his gaze that he hadn’t really ever noticed before.

  
  


“... you sure you’re okay?” He finally asked, to which Gaster frowned.

  
  


“ I’m  _ fine _ . You need to go to bed.” The doctor reached down, spinning Sans around before leading him back down the hallway to their home.

  
  


“does blood gross you out?”

  
  


“No.”

  
  


“then why are you acting so weird?” Sans was becoming more comfortable with the situation as time drew on and his curiosity was beginning to push any worries aside.

  
  


“Because.”

  
  


“‘because’ isn’t an answer.” Sans frowned as they drew closer and closer to the door to their home.

  
  


“Sans.” Gaster said sternly, his voice tired.

  
  


“... you didn’t have to kill them, right?” He suddenly asked, digging in his heels to stop his creator from leading him any further as he turned and looked up at him. Gaster stopped as they stood just outside the door to their room.

  
  


“Not this time.”

  
  


Sans’ usual broad smile tugged downward around the edges as Gaster stared at him right in the eyes. He said it so casually it startled him and Gaster didn’t look the least bit upset at what his words had implied. The doctor let those words hang in the air, watching and waiting for any reaction from Sans.

  
  


“... you’ve killed humans?”

  
  


“Yes.” Gaster said flatly, his hand hovering over the handle to their room as he looked down at his creation.

 

More awkward silence spanned between them. Sans eventually looked away from the monster stood before him, unable to hold his gaze.

  
  


“You can think what you want of that.” He finally said after a moment, “I don’t regret what I did.”

  
  


Sans tensed his mouth and then frowned, looking up at the doctor. “if you don’t regret it why are you standing out in the dark drinking and acting all jumpy?”

  
  


“Just because I don’t regret it doesn’t mean I enjoyed it.” Gaster said without needing to think much of his words. He then opened the door and gestured with his head for Sans to go inside. “Go back to bed. I’m fine. Don’t let Papyrus wake up without you there.”

  
  


The tiny skeleton’s expression softened at Gaster’s words and he looked inside their home. Eventually he nodded and walked in, heading for his bedroom. The door closed behind him but Gaster hadn’t followed.

  
  


Sans walked into his bedroom, hovering in the doorway for a moment before he headed for Papyrus’ bed instead. He climbed in behind him, wrapping his arms around his little brother as Papyrus mumbled in annoyance in his sleep.

  
  


Outside in the hallway Gaster made his way back to his spot and picked up the beer he hadn’t quite finished. A hand reached up, pushing under his collared shirt to feel around his scapula. It was easy to find the deep ridge that had been created in it long ago. His fingers danced along the scar, the edges jagged and rough. He sighed and pulled his hand away before reaching for another beer.

  
  


Sans wasn’t the only one who got nightmares.

 


	18. Cookies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Farfig makes the boys cookies.

The day had been pretty average and boring by the standards of the two skeleton brothers walking through the halls of the CORE facility. School had just ended for the day and they were on their way back home, weaving through the assistants and workers that crowded the corridors. Papyrus was going on about his day in usual fashion, making even the most dull time at school somehow sound interesting and full of fun. Neither of them even noticed a familiar green dragon monster approach them.

  
  


“Hey Sans, Papyrus.” Farfig smiled as she came near, the two boys stopping to smile up at her.

  
  


“heya.”

  
  


“HI MS. FARFIG!” Papyrus beamed.

  
  


“I’m glad I ran into you. I made you both a little something.” She started to dig into her purse, heading out and on her way home by the looks in her change of coat. After a moment she pulled out a cookie tin and handed it down to Papyrus.

  
  


“WHAT’S THIS?”

  
  


“Cookies.” The dragon smiled, “I’m sure you’ve probably never had home-baked goods before, so I thought you would enjoy them.”

  
  


Papyrus wrestled with the lid before his brother took it from him and opened it to peer inside, revealing a collection of sugar cookies in various shapes and colors.

  
  


“WOWIE, THOSE ARE PRETTY!” Papyrus grinned up at the monster.

  
  


“yeah. thanks farfig.” Sans smiled too.

  
  


“It’s no problem. You enjoy those, alright? Don’t let the doctor have them.” She chuckled, “Have a good evening!” Farfig walked around them and headed the way they had came.

  
  


“WE WILL. BYE-BYE!” The younger skeleton waved as she left before peering at the cookies again. Sans reached in and pulled one out, handing it to Papyrus before taking another out for himself and closing the lid. They ate as they walked.

  
  


“MMM, THESE ARE REALLY GOOD.” Papyrus said after swallowing a mouthful.

  
  


“yeah. we’ll have to tell her next time we see her.” Sans said around half a cookie in his mouth.

  
  


The pair made their way home just fine, Sans opening the door and stepping in to find their creator sat in his usual spot, mulling over research. “hey ‘dings.”

  
  


“HI DAD! FARFIG MADE US COOKIES.”

  
  


“Oh yeah? She must really like you two.” Gaster said without looking up as the two boys pulled off their backpacks and Papyrus removed his shoes. Sans pushed the cookie tin onto the kitchen table and grabbed another before moving to the couch for his usual after-school nap. Papyrus climbed onto one of the chairs and reached for another too.

  
  


The doctor finally looked up and watched his son eat a cookie before wheeling himself over on his stool and reaching for one. Papyrus abruptly waved his hand away from them. “NO, SHE SAID THESE WERE OURS.”

  
  


“Hey, what?” Gaster pouted, “I can’t even try them?”

  
  


“NOPE. SHE SAID NOT TO LET YOU EAT THEM.”

  
  


“What!?” He frowned indignantly, “Come on Papy, I can’t even try one?”

  
  


“NOPE.” Papyrus put the lid back on the tin with a grin. “IF YOU WANT YOUR OWN COOKIES YOU’LL HAVE TO ASK MS. FARFIG FOR SOME.”

  
  


“Now that’s just cruel.”

  
  


The night passed uneventfully, the trio having a usual frozen or takeout dinner before watching some TV together and going to bed. Or, at least, the boys went to bed. Gaster never did sleep very much.

  
  


While the two slept Gaster moved over to the cookie tin, popping it open in hopes he could sneak one while his boys were in bed. As soon as the tin popped Papyrus’ voice came through the bedroom door; “PUT IT BACK, DAD.”

  
  


Gaster stood still, staring at the cookie in his hand before slowly turning to stare at their door. “How in the fu-”

  
  


“NO CURSING, DAD.”

  
  


The doctor just… stared. After what felt like a solid minute he finally put the cookie back and closed the tin as loudly as he could while glaring at the bedroom door.

  
  


“GOODNIGHT DAD.”

  
  


Gaster mouthed ‘what the fuck’ before going back to his research. How the hell did he hear that? Nevertheless, it stopped him from trying again.

 

\--

  
  


The following day Sans and Papyrus had the forethought to take the cookies with them to school. They split them evenly between them, Papyrus wanting to share them with some of his classmates while Sans decided to eat nothing but cookies for his lunch. On their way back home from another day of learning they ran into Farfig again.

  
  


“Hey boys! Did you like my cookies?”

  
  


“YEAH! WE TOOK THEM TO SCHOOL AND I SHARED WITH MY FRIENDS.”

  
  


Sans dug into his backpack to produce the now empty cookie tin and handed it back. “i just ate the rest for lunch. heh.”

  
  


“Well that was very nice of you, Papyrus, and… Sans you’re going to get a tummy ache if you do that.” Farfig scolded gently, taking the tin from them.

  
  


“DAD REALLY WANTED SOME TOO BUT I TOLD HIM NO.”

  
  


Farfig giggled, “Good. These were for you boys, after all.”

  
  


Papyrus paused for a moment, “MS. FARFIG?”

  
  


“Yes?”

  
  


“COULD YOU MAKE SOME FOR DAD? I BET HE’S NEVER HAD HOME-BAKED COOKIES BEFORE EITHER.”

  
  


The dragon looked a little surprised, then thought for a moment and smiled a little. “Sure. I’ll make the doctor some cookies too.” She idly wondered if what Papyrus said was true. As far as she knew Gaster didn’t have any living relatives that would bake for him, and who knew how long he had been alone living off takeout.

  
  


“COOL! THANK YOU. THEY WERE VERY GOOD.”

  
  


“yeah. thanks farfig.” Sans said, leading his little brother down the hallway towards their home.

  
  


“I’m glad you liked them. See you tomorrow!” Farfig straightened up and began to head home as well, walking in the opposite direction.

  
  


\--

  
  


Another day came and went, Sans and Papyrus walking along their usual route through the CORE and bumping into Farfig at around the same point.

  
  


“As promised-” The dragon said, pulling the same tin out of her purse filled with a new batch of cookies. “-some cookies for the doctor.”

  
  


“YAY! THANKS!” Papyrus reached up to take the tin, looking down at it happily. “I’M SURE DAD WILL LOVE THEM.”

  
  


“I guess we’ll find out.” Farfig smirked and began to walk around them to go home. “Take care, boys.”

  
  


The two made their way through the corridors back home, the door opening and Papyrus stepping inside first.

  
  


“DAD! FARFIG MADE YOU COOKIES.” He walked up to his father sat at his desk, cookie tin thrust outward.

  
  


“Wha? She did?” Gaster took the container and opened it up to see the same multicolored cookies as before. “Huh.” He took one out and ate it. “... Wow, these are really good.”

  
  


He couldn’t remember the last time he had eaten something homemade.

  
  


“I KNOW! FARFIG IS A GOOD BAKER.”

  
  


\--

  
  


A few days later and the cookies were gone. As Sans and Papyrus were getting ready for school the doctor handed them the empty tin.

  
  


“Here. You usually see that dragon when you’re coming home from school, right?”

  
  


“sure.” Sans said as he reached out for the tin, but was stopped as Papyrus reached out first to push the container back towards their creator.

  
  


“YOU SHOULD GIVE IT BACK TO HER.”

  
  


Discomfort washed over Gaster’s face. “What.”

  
  


“YOU SHOULD GIVE IT BACK TO HER! THAT WAY YOU CAN TELL HER THANK YOU.”

  
  


The doctor stared at Papyrus, then down at the tin. He… really didn’t want to have to talk to anyone. Before he could fight over it the two had hurried themselves out the door to avoid the ensuing argument. Gaster was left alone, holding the tin.

  
  


Shit.

  
  


Gaster spent the next 30 minutes glaring at the container and trying to hate it out of existence. Eventually he grabbed it angrily and rushed out of the room to storm down the halls and try to find Farfig all while cursing internally to himself and gesturing erratically with his hands from nervousness.

  
  


At least when he looked this angry everyone just sort of… stepped aside and let him through.

  
  


Finally he spotted the stout green dragon amongst a group of her colleagues and headed towards her, probably looking a lot more pissed off than he actually intended. There was a reason he was typically avoided by everyone. Even when not trying to look mad he often appeared as such. Not having any skin didn’t help.

  
  


He hovered behind Farfig, the group around her trying to direct the dragon with their eyes that the boss was right behind her. She blinked and turned, having to crane her neck to meet Gaster in the eyes.

  
  


… Not that meeting him in the eyes was a particularly nice thing to look at.

  
  


“Can I help you D-”

  
  


“Thanks for the cookies.” Gaster said, cutting her off to thrust the tin at her. His voice was flat and emotionless, the sort of vague anger still plastered over his face.

  
  


“O-... Oh. Yes.” The dragon took the tin and tried to smile, but it was hard when your boss was glaring down at you… even if he had just said thank you. “You’re welcome.”

  
  


“They were good.”

  
  


Farfig managed a little more genuine a smile, which seemed to be Gaster’s cue to leave. Without another word he turned and walked away back down the hall. It wasn’t until he had made it to sections of the lab that he knew were empty that he finally allowed himself to spaz out, hands signing and rubbing at his face.

  
  


Once he reached the door to his house he grabbed the handle and let out a loud groan. “Okay. That's my socialization quota met for the next decade.” He opened it and stepped inside, closing the door firmly behind him.

 


	19. Gaster Hates Summer & So Do I

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A one-shot, spur-of-the-moment short I did that takes place sometime after AYEM’s ending. The boys take Gaster to the beach and he fucking hates it.

“Did I mention how terrible an idea this is? Because it’s a really fucking terrible idea.” Gaster said as he stood at the very edge of the beach, eying the sand as though it was his greatest foe to date.

  
  


“oh come on, dad. we even found a secluded beach so you could experience it without anyone around.” Sans said, trying to be encouraging. “besides-” He approached him, getting closer to he could drop his voice a few octaves, “-pap has really wanted to come to the beach with you.”

  
  


Gaster side glanced his eldest son, frowning deeper. Using Papyrus as a bargaining tool. How underhanded. Nevertheless he let out a sigh and let his shoulders slump a bit just as Papyrus finished pulling a few buckets out of the trunk of their car, both him and Sans dressed for the occasion.

  
  


“THIS IS THE FIRST TIME YOU’VE EVER BEEN TO THE BEACH, RIGHT DAD? HAVE YOU EVER SEEN THE OCEAN BEFORE?” Papyrus asked, grinning broadly.

“Nope.” Gaster said, not sounding particularly excited.

  
  


“WELL I THINK YOU CAN STILL HAVE FUN.” Papyrus said, still grinning as he started to lead his brother and father down along the beach.

  
  


As soon as Gaster set foot in the sand he wobbled and nearly fell over into Sans.

  
  


“y'ok dad?” Sans asked, one of the ridges of his brow raised.

  
  


“Yeah I just-” Gaster mumbled and did away with his legs entirely to make walking on it a little easier. “-gotta ditch my legs I guess.”

  
  


No legs.

  
  


Off to a good start.

  
  


Fuck sand.

  
  


“DON’T WORRY, SAND GETS MORE FUN WHEN IT’S WET. THEN YOU CAN BUILD THINGS OUT OF IT!” Papyrus grinned back to his father, trying to cheer him up.

  
  


The doctor just grumbled a bit and tried not to start bitching verbally as well as mentally.

  
  


They made their way over one of the dunes of sand and the ocean came into view. A massive expanse of water that carried far, far into the horizon with nothing in sight.

  
  


It reminded him of the void a little bit.

  
  


Strike two.

  
  


… His kids meant well, though. He didn’t say anything about it.

  
  


“HERE DAD. I BROUGHT A TOWEL YOU CAN SIT ON.” Papyrus said, unfolding a beach towel closer to the water. “YOU DON’T HAVE TO DO MUCH IF YOU DON’T WANT TO, BUT I’M GOING TO BUILD A SAND CASTLE IF YOU WANT TO HELP?”

  
  


Gaster tried to smile, “Sure Pap. Is it like building a snowman?”

  
  


“KIND OF!” Papyrus grinned, walking down to the water’s edge with the bucket and scooping up water to dump it near the spot where he had settled his dad. “YOU WET THE SAND AND THEN MOLD IT.”

  
  


He knelt down to demonstrate, Sans busying himself by blowing up a tube to float in.

  
  


Gaster watched him and reached forward, squishing his fingers into the sand and then pulling them back out, the void stretching and… stretching. He made a face and quickly pulled his hand away, recalling the void back to its position where his fingers should be.

  
  


“Uh. I think I’ll pass.”

  
  


Papyrus looked a little downhearted, but nodded and smiled all the same. “OKAY, THAT’S FINE. YOU CAN WATCH THE GREAT PAPYRUS MAKE THE GREATEST SAND CASTLE THERE EVER WAS!”

  
  


Gaster smiled, settling down and watching his son work, the sand building upwards more and more until Sans had finally finished blowing up the tube.

  
  


“okay dad, ready to get in the ocean for the first time?”

  
  


“No.” Gaster said flatly.

  
  


“aw, c'mon.” Sans moaned.

  
  


“YEAH, LET’S GO! YOU NEED TO TRY IT AT LEAST ONCE BEFORE YOU SAY WHETHER OR NOT YOU HATE IT!” Papyrus scolded.

  
  


Gaster merely sighed in defeat and stood, Papyrus snatching up his hand in and instant and leading his father down to the water’s edge.

  
  


Sans grinned and passed his little brother the inner tube, who promptly shoved it over his father’s head and over his shoulders, pinning his arms to his sides.

  
  


Gaster blinked, his arms melding into his sides before regrowing out of his shoulders and looking down at the white inner tube with a happy little dog face on it.

  
  


“… Why.”

  
  


“SAFETY FIRST!” Papyrus declared, grabbing his father’s hand again. “IF YOU’VE NEVER BEEN TO THE OCEAN WE NEED TO BE SURE YOU WON’T DROWN OR… OR… MELT…?”

  
  


“I am having many second thoughts.” Gaster said, suddenly looking nervous as he was pulled into the water, already feeling the void shift away from him and be harder to hold onto.

  
  


Papyrus lead him deeper and deeper, until eventually he clung to the side of the tube and curled the rest of the void around the sides of it like an octopus.

  
  


He didn’t look happy.

  
  


“you look comfy.” Sans joked.

  
  


“This is terrible.” Gaster grumbled, looking like a drowned cat had a child with a squid. “Send me back to the void.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was inspired by artwork done by petite-pumpkin over on tumblr of Gaster sitting on a beach hating summer, and since I also really fucking hate summer and it was requested I write a little blurb about it, I whipped this up in about 20 minutes for shits and giggles. Enjoy!


	20. Halloween With Gaster

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gaster tackles the strange human holiday known as ‘Halloween’ with his kids now that they’re all free and on the surface. Will he hate it?

“JUST BECAUSE YOU WON'T BE COMING DOESN'T MEAN YOU CAN'T HELP.” Papyrus said to his father as he carried in armfuls of shopping, bags full of candy and Halloween supplies filling the burlap bags to the brim.

 

“Why would I want to help set up a party I won't participate in?” Gaster grumbled as he followed his son inside, a pumpkin under each arm. The two of them walked into the kitchen, Sans trailing behind them to close the front door with a bag of his own.

 

“because it's something to do.” The stout skeleton chimed in as he entered after them, setting his bag on the table along with everything else they had carried inside. “y'know... in the present? with your hands?” He made a few vague gestures with his fingers towards Gaster, who stared at them for a moment before sighing.

 

“Yeah. Fine. Alright.” He said, not wanting to argue about it. All of them knew he had a hard time keeping in touch with reality, especially with how little he perceived it through his senses now that he was mostly considered dead, a soul floating through thick sludge it was able to control.

 

Both of his sons smiled, Sans breathing out a sigh of relief. It was tiring work making sure your dad took care of himself.

 

… He forgot how much he missed it, all those years they were apart.

 

“GREAT!” Papyrus cheered, “IT'S BEING HELD AT UNDYNE'S AND ALPHYS' PLACE. YOU CAN HELP ME CARVE THESE PUMPKINS FIRST.”

 

Gaster looked at the pumpkins before his eye started to follow his kids around the kitchen, idly helping them put away some of the things they had bought. He had never carved a pumpkin before, Halloween wasn't something that was widely celebrated back when he had been alive, above or below ground. These days the humans had made it all about candy and scaring kids and decorations. He could really get behind the whole 'scaring kids' thing, but the decorations?

 

It had been startling to see plastic skeletons hung up everywhere. The boys had to explain it all to him to keep him from thinking it was some sort of call out to have his kids lynched.

 

… Still pretty fucking unnerving, even after it had been explained. Humans were weird.

 

Once everything was put away Papyrus began to explain to his father how to go about carving a pumpkin, showing him where to cut it open and how to pull out the guts from inside. Halfway through it Gaster realized it was only him and Papyrus carving them, and there were only two pumpkins. Sans was stood in front of the oven, slicing up premade cookie dough with a ghost pattern in the center to bake.

 

“Wait, where is your pumpkin?” Gaster asked.

 

“huh?” Sans mumbled, turning to look at him. “oh.”

 

He dug around in the pocket of his hoodie and pulled out a tiny gourd with his own face very crudely drawn on one side with a sharpie.

 

Gaster stared at it blankly. “A masterpiece.”

 

“i try.” Sans shrugged, his grin spreading a little wider before he shoved the gourd back into the pocket of his sweater and went back to cutting up the cookies to lay on the baking tray.

 

When all the guts were pulled out of the pumpkin, Papyrus instructed his dad on how to go about actually carving patterns into it, laying out a number of different cutting implements to get the job done. Gaster watched his son for a minute or two before summoning up his attack.

 

“DAD!” Papyrus glared at the long, jagged bone Gaster had summoned. “DIDN'T WE TALK ABOUT SUMMONING ATTACKS IN THE HOUSE?”

 

Gaster paused and looked at Papyrus, blank-faced. “Yeah.”

 

“AND?” Papyrus asked, exasperated.

 

“And I'm gonna do it anyway because I'm an adult.” Gaster grinned.

 

“UGH.” Papyrus flung back his head in annoyance as his father snickered and held the pumpkin with one hand while using his attack to carve into one side. It was really too large of an implement to carve with, but he somehow managed.

 

He finished first, not having quite the eye for detail and patience as his son did for such things, and dismissed his attack before standing back to look at his handiwork. Sans came over and stood beside him to see too.

 

A very crude image of his blaster was carved into the side.

 

“... there's something to be said about you that you used an attack to carve in the image of _another_ attack.” Sans commented, trying not to sound as amused as he was.

 

Gaster made some sort of scoffing noise before rotating the pumpkin so Papyrus could see. “What do  _you_ think?”

 

Papyrus stopped his carving to look up at it. “... WELL YOU CERTAINLY PUT MORE EFFORT INTO IT THAN SANS.”

 

“Hah!” The scientist boasted, grinning down at his son, who barely seemed to be paying attention to his father.

 

“how's yours coming along, pap?”

 

The skeleton put his implements down and rotated the pumpkin around for the two to see; a detailed carving of his own face in the side.

 

“nice, pap.” Sans said, Gaster whistling in praise.

 

“THANK YOU! I WANT ALL THE CHILDREN WHO COME TO THE HOUSE TO BE GREETED BY MY DASHING SMILE EVEN IF I'M NOT THE ONE HANDING OUT CANDY.” Papyrus beamed.

 

Once the pumpkins were carved and the cookies were baked, the trio made their way over to Alphys and Undyne's house to help set everything up, Gaster having to be reassured that the fish monster wouldn't be there while he was helping. It wasn't that he hated Undyne, and Undyne didn't exactly hate him either, but... things weren't exactly comfortable between them, not after what happened with the kid.

 

Things weren't comfortable for him and a lot of people, but he liked Alphys at the very least.

 

While Sans and Papyrus busied themselves with other things, Gaster helped the tiny scientist set up some of the lights. He was the tallest, after all, taller than even Papyrus if he forgo his legs and piled himself up a little more. Normally he hated shifting his body into anything but what he normally displayed himself as, even in front of his kids, but Alphys was an exception. She never made faces, never judged, never looked like it bothered her.

 

That probably had something to do with all the time spent around the amalgamates. Either way it was... welcome. More welcome than Gaster could ever really express.

 

“Thanks for, uh, helping set up the party, doctor.” Alphys said, her arms full of colorful lights as Gaster pulled them along and up, hanging them from the doorways and along the ceiling. “I know you... probably won't be coming, because of, uh, all the people, but I'm glad you decided to help.” She flashed him a smile, and Gaster peeked back at her to give a slanted smile back.

 

“Don't mention it. The boys suggest I help to keep me... y'know, moving.” He said, Alphys being the only other one to know and understand Gaster's condition; his social anxiety, PTSD, and how hard it was for him to stay attached to reality.

 

Alphys made a noise of agreement and nodded. “Y-Yeah, this is probably a nice little change, right?”

 

A lot of people saw Gaster as unlikable and brash, but she didn't. Sure he could be loud and a little intense, but... so could the monster she loved. Maybe that was why she liked him so much. He had qualities that reminded her of Undyne, qualities that people often took for negative.

 

It was really a shame the two couldn't get along.

 

“Yeah.” Gaster smiled a bit wider. Despite it all, he was really enjoying himself. He enjoyed being with his boys. He liked to be around Alphys. She was a nice kid, and understood him more than a lot of other monsters even dared to try to.

 

It was good to have a friend.

 

“So I know you aren't really going anywhere or, uh, doing anything, but have you thought about dressing up?” Alphys asked.

 

“Well I can't really wear clothes easily anymore--” Gaster began, the tiny lizard already making flustered noises at her blunder.

 

“O-Oh I'm sorry I forgot!”

 

“Nah it's okay. I could always change my body though.” Gaster said, pausing in putting up the lights to shift the void around his head and turn to look at Alphys. In place of his usual minimalistic head was a very crude, slightly lopsided anime face with a poor attempt at spiked hair.

 

The tiny lizard stared at it for a moment before biting her snout and trying not to laugh, failing rather miserably.

 

“Am I kawaii, Alphys?” Gaster asked, although his mouth didn't move with his speech. That was all the little scientist needed to start laughing, even if she continued to try and muffle it with the lights in her hands.

 

“Th-That's actually not bad for a first attempt!” She laughed.

 

Gaster grinned and straightened up again, head shifting back to normal. He liked making others laugh, even if it was a little at his own expense.

 

After he finished helping Alphys and the boys set up for the party he made his way back home alone. He had to be sure he got inside before the trick-or-treating started to happen, lest he accidentally bump into a human child and ruin the night for everyone.

 

He closed and locked the door behind him and shut off the lights so none of the kids outside would get the wrong idea before heading towards the couch. There would at least be some scary movies on tonight to watch.

 

Gaster looked at the dark, empty room for much longer than he intended.

 

...

 

He quickly shook his head and shoved his feelings back inside himself, sitting down on the TV and turning it on before he could get a real good look at his reflection in the screen and make himself even more upset.

 

Gaster wasn't sure how much time passed before the door opened again. It couldn't have been too long though, he had only gotten through one slasher flick before the next one was just beginning to start. Sure enough though his boys stepped through the door and closed it behind them.

 

“Hey, you two have fun?” He asked, looking over at them with his eye.

 

“OH YES, LOTS OF FUN! I HANDED OUT SO MUCH CANDY TOO!” Papyrus said as he pulled himself onto the couch.

 

“You're home a lot earlier than I thought you would be.” Gaster said, scooting over so Sans could take the other end and leave him nestled between his two kids.

 

“yeah, well, what's halloween without spending it with the most terrifying monster on the block?” Sans said with a grin.

 

Gaster grinned back and reached over to ruffle his skull. “You little shit.”

 

The three settled back into the couch, Gaster's arms draped along the back and framing his kids on each side. Papyrus at least made it through one slasher flick for the sake of his dad before asking the channel to be changed, and Sans had fallen asleep leaned up against his dad about halfway through.

 

He smiled, pulling the blanket off the back of the couch and over his eldest son before wrapping his arm around him. The other reached up to rub at Papyrus' skull, eliciting a small 'NYEH-HEH' from him while he snacked on some of the treats they had brought back from the party.

 

Maybe human traditions weren't all that bad.

 


End file.
